How RubyGems Protects Us From Supply Chain Attacks (And Why Every Ruby Developer Should Care)

What Really Happens Behind the Scenes

Every time you run gem install or bundle, there's an entire security system working on the RubyGems side:

• Automated scanning of every uploaded package: static and dynamic content analysis.
• Risk assessment and escalation: suspicious cases are flagged for manual review by maintainers.
• Retroactive scanning: re-checking old packages as detection signatures and methods improve.

The Detection Pipeline: SAST/DAST, Risk Scoring & Retroactive Scanning

Simplified, the pipeline looks like this: upload → static analysis (looking for suspicious patterns) → "sandbox" for dynamic analysis → risk scoring based on metrics → manual review when alerts trigger → notifications and package removal → retroactive scan of the entire old pool when new rules appear.

July Case Study: How Incident Response Works

Here's how a recent incident unfolded:

1. July 20th — RubyGems systems flagged a batch of gems stealing social media credentials.
2. By July 28th — nearly all packages were removed and distribution stopped.
3. August 7th — researchers published an analysis and added 16 more artifacts — the community collaboratively closed the remaining gaps.

The Reality That Should Concern All of Us

A critical part of this work relies on a small number of people and sponsors. Volunteers and maintainers literally remove an average of one malicious package every week. This is constant background attacks, not rare incidents.

Why This Matters for Every Developer

• Threats are real: one package per week represents a systematic attack on the supply chain.
• Security costs money: servers, tools, incident response — this isn't "free magic."
• We're all in this together: any Ruby project pulls in dependencies.

Practical Steps: What to Do Right Now

Tools to install

1# 1) Audit dependency vulnerabilities
2gem install bundler-audit
3bundle audit check --update
4
5# 2) Check licenses (optional)
6gem install license_finder
7license_finder
8
9# 3) OSV / Snyk / Trivy as additional layer (optional)
10# osv-scanner, snyk, aquasecurity/trivy

Recommended Bundler settings

1# Prevent mixed sources (protection against substitution)
2bundle config set disable_multisource true
3
4# Cache locally and use HTTPS sources only
5bundle config set cache_all true
6bundle config set clean 'true'

CI/CD Examples: Automating Security Checks

1name: Security checks
2
3on:
4  pull_request:
5    paths:
6      - 'Gemfile'
7      - 'Gemfile.lock'
8  schedule:
9    - cron: '0 6 * * 1'  # weekly on Mondays
10
11jobs:
12  bundler-audit:
13    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
14    steps:
15      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
16      - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
17        with:
18          ruby-version: '3.3'
19          bundler-cache: true
20      - name: Install bundler-audit
21        run: gem install bundler-audit
22      - name: Audit
23        run: bundle audit check --update
24
25  osv-scanner:
26    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
27    steps:
28      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
29      - name: Run OSV scanner
30        uses: google/osv-scanner-action@v1
31        with:
32          scan-args: '-L -r .'

About Money and Sustainability: Supporting Infrastructure

This isn't charity — it's business insurance. If your company makes money from Ruby products, it makes sense to support the RubyGems supporter program and security efforts.

Discuss a small sponsorship budget with your team. In return, you get ecosystem stability that your product is built on.

Key Takeaways

The July malicious gems incident showed that the RubyGems system works — and often gets ahead of public research. But taking it for granted is dangerous. Behind every successful gem install are people, processes, and expenses.

What I'm doing personally: being more careful about dependencies, enabling security alerts, automating audits in CI, and raising the topic of sponsorship with leadership. Maybe it's time to give back to the ecosystem.