Talk All Audiences 15:20 - 15:50 August 09, 2025

Raphael Silva

When attackers compromise a developer’s IDE, they own the code before it even reaches production.

VSCode and Visual Studio plugins have minimal security oversight, making them a prime target for attacker-controlled backdoors. In this talk, I’ll cover original research into compromising IDE components and plugins. Attendees will:

  • Learn how plugin ecosystems work and why they’re so easy to exploit
  • See demonstrations of practical PoCs of backdoored plugins for VSCode and Visual Studio that steal credentials, inject malicious code, and more
  • Understand how attackers leverage plugin marketplace manipulation: how they use fake reviews, typosquatting, and dependency hijacking to push malicious plugins

Expect a technical deep dive into real-world exploitation techniques, showcasing how attackers are leveraging overlooked security gaps in developer tooling.

Raphael Silva

Security Researcher @ Checkmarx

Raphael Silva is a Security Researcher at Checkmarx, specializing in security research, SAST methodologies, and Supply Chain Security. Over the course of his career, he has presented at various conferences, as well as conducted a workshop at DEFCON30. In addition, he is experienced in vulnerability analysis, research, and disclosure, having reported multiple bugs to companies and open-source projects.