Lucide Proxy: Turning Student Web Proxies into DDoS Bots

A sophisticated campaign deployed 148 malicious npm packages disguised as student web proxy applications under brands like Riverbend Tutoring and Northstar Tutoring. Published by accounts terminal3airport and eerikakirk, these packages weaponized visitor browsers into distributed denial-of-service botnets while generating advertising revenue. The applications functioned as working proxies but secretly executed mutable remote code and high-performance WebSocket traffic generators compatible with the Wisp protocol. During a critical two-week period in May 2026, active deployments launched HTTP floods generating 2GB/s aggregate traffic and control-plane attacks establishing 10,240 socket connections per second against target servers. The campaign abused npm as a content delivery network, affecting users who visited proxy instances rather than through traditional dependency infection.

Jul 14, 2026 · unknown severity · unattributed attribution