https://sebastianspicker.github.io/tags/malware/ Recent content in Malware on Sebastian Spicker https://sebastianspicker.github.io/og-image.png https://sebastianspicker.github.io/og-image.png Hugo -- 0.160.0 en Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://sebastianspicker.github.io/posts/github-stars-reputation-laundering/ Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://sebastianspicker.github.io/posts/github-stars-reputation-laundering/ Buying GitHub stars sounds pathetic enough to be a joke. The joke misses the interesting part. Stars are a public trust signal on a code-hosting platform, and there is an ordinary, low-friction market for faking them. The important question is not whether inflated stars reliably produce downloads. It is why counterfeit popularity is so cheap to buy, and why that becomes a security problem once fake credibility attaches to malicious repositories.