Fake Stripe NuGet Package Steals API Tokens

Cybersecurity researchers have spotted yet another clever attempt to slip malicious code into developers' toolkits, this time by impersonating one of the most trusted names in online payments. A bogus NuGet package called StripeApi.Net (note the sneaky hyphen) briefly appeared on the gallery, posing as the official Stripe.net library. The real Stripe.net is hugely popular, boasting more than 75 million downloads, so it's an attractive target for anyone hoping developers won't look twice. The fake arrived on February 16, 2026, courtesy of an account charmingly named StripePayments. It has since been removed, thankfully before it could do widespread harm. According to Petar Kirhmajer of ReversingLabs, the package's NuGet page was crafted to mirror the genuine one almost perfectly: same icon, near-identical readme file, just with "Stripe.net" quietly swapped for "Stripe-net." Small change, big difference. To make it look even more convincing, whoever was behind this artificially pumped the download numbers to over 180,000. Here's the amusing (if slightly worrying) part: those downloads were spread across 506 separate versions, averaging roughly 300 each. Someone clearly thought that would seem more natural than one version suddenly exploding in popularity. Under the hood, the package did include much of the legitimate Stripe functionality, enough to let applications build and process payments without raising immediate red flags. But certain key methods had been quietly altered to harvest sensitive information, most notably the developer's Stripe API token, and quietly ship it off to the attackers. From the developer's point of view, everything would appear to work normally. Payments go through, no errors pop up, nothing seems broken... except that confidential credentials are now in someone else's hands. ReversingLabs caught and reported the package relatively quickly after it went live, limiting its exposure. Interestingly, the team noted this marks a departure from earlier NuGet-based campaigns, which typically went after cryptocurrency wallets and private keys. This one appears aimed squarely at the broader financial sector. As Kirhmajer put it: developers could integrate the library, run their code, handle real transactions and never suspect a thing was wrong. Meanwhile, in the background, the quiet theft continues. A timely reminder that in open-source package ecosystems, even tiny naming differences can hide very expensive surprises. Double-checking that dependency before you dotnet add package is starting to feel less like paranoia and more like basic hygiene. **Source:** *[The Hacker News](https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/malicious-stripeapi-nuget-package.html)*