Imagine this: you wake up, sip your coffee, open your blockchain wallet… and poof — 💸 half a million dollars gone. Not “your-friend-borrowed-it” gone, but never-seeing-it-again gone.

Now before you start blaming aliens, shady Telegram groups, or that time you accidentally clicked on a “Hot Singles in Your Area” ad — let me break it down.

The culprit? Not your browser. Not your private keys (you were careful). Not even your Wi-Fi neighbor named Kevin.

The thief was sitting inside your IDE.
Yep. The place you trust the most.

Our unlucky developer wasn’t using Microsoft’s VS Code directly, but a fork called Cursor (which many devs love because it adds AI coding magic). Cursor, like other VS Code forks, doesn’t use Microsoft’s locked-down marketplace. Instead, it uses Open VSX, the open-source extension registry.

And Open VSX, while awesome, has looser bouncers at the door. Which means… hackers can sneak in wearing fake mustaches.

Here’s what happened:

1. A fake extension appeared on Open VSX pretending to be a Solidity helper tool.

2. It had a suspiciously high download count (padded by bots), looked “professional,” and even mimicked the real extension name (think juanBlanco vs juanBIanco(a capital I looks like a l)).

3. Our developer installed it, thinking, “Well, everyone else is using it. Must be fine.”

4. Hidden in his local user folder was a file called extension.js, which quietly downloaded a PowerShell script, installed remote-access software, and basically handed the hacker the keys to the house.

5. Every time Cursor opened, the backdoor reopened. The attacker could browse files, scrape seed phrases, and eventually… drain the wallet.

Game Over.

• Extensions are basically gods inside your IDE. They can create, delete, or read files. They can access your terminal. They can even phone home.

• Unlike browser extensions (which at least scream “Permission needed!”), IDE extensions often just… do whatever they want.

• The trust system is based on publishers and download counts. And guess what? Both can be faked.

So while Microsoft’s store has layers of review and human checks, Open VSX is more like a neighborhood with fewer security guards. Malware does get removed — but often after the damage is done.

Here are the golden rules to survive in this wild west:

1. Double IDE Setup – Install official VS Code alongside your fork. Test new extensions on VS Code’s Microsoft marketplace first, then migrate them.

2. Publisher Stalking – Check the extension publisher’s history. If they’ve been around a while with multiple tools, safer. If they just popped up last Tuesday with “2M downloads” overnight…

3. Delay Adoption – Let other developers test new extensions first. Don’t be the guinea pig.

4. Minimal Extensions – If you’re working on sensitive projects, install as few extensions as possible.

5. Separate Machines – Keep your wallet machine and your coding machine separate. Don’t mix “million-dollar-wallet” with “experimental AI IDE.”

6. Gut Check – If an extension feels buggy or weird, uninstall it immediately. Trust your spidey senses.

In 2025, we learned something ridiculous but true:
Extensions are like roommates. They may help with groceries… or they may steal your crypto when you’re not looking.

So next time you see a shiny “must-have” extension with 2 million downloads and a sketchy capital “I” in its name, remember this story.

Because nothing kills your morning coffee vibes faster than realizing your IDE just helped someone else buy a Lambo with your money.