Malicious Python packages make software supply chains vulnerable by exploiting trust in open-source repositories like Python Package Index (PyPI). Lack of real-time behavioral monitoring makes metadata inspection and static code analysis inadequate against advanced attack strategies such as typosquatting, covert remote access activation, and dynamic payload generation. To address these challenges, we introduce DySec, a machine learning (ML)-based dynamic analysis framework for PyPI that uses eBPF kernel and user-level probes to monitor behaviors during package installation. By capturing 36 real-time features–including system calls, network traffic, resource usage, directory access, and installation patterns–DySec detects threats like typosquatting, covert remote access activation, dynamic payload generation, and multiphase attack malware. We developed a comprehensive dataset of 14,271 Python packages, including 7,127 malicious sample traces, by executing them in a controlled isolated environment. Experimental results demonstrate that DySec achieves 96% detection accuracy with an ML inference latency of <0.5s after dynamic feature extraction, reducing false negatives by 78.65% compared to static analysis and 82.24% compared to metadata analysis. During the evaluation, DySec flagged eleven packages that PyPI classified as benign. A manual analysis, including installation behavior inspection, confirmed six of them as malicious. These findings were reported to PyPI maintainers, resulting in the removal of four packages. DySec bridges the gap between reactive traditional methods and proactive, scalable threat mitigation in open-source ecosystems by uniquely detecting malicious install-time behaviors.

Securing software supply chains is a growing challenge due to the inadequacy of existing datasets in capturing the complexity of next-gen attacks, such as multiphase malware execution, remote access activation, and dynamic payload generation. Existing datasets, which rely on metadata inspection and static code analysis, are inadequate for detecting such attacks. This creates a critical gap because these datasets do not capture what happens during and after a package is installed. To address this gap, we present QUT-DV25, a dynamic analysis dataset specifically designed to support and advance research on detecting and mitigating supply chain attacks within the Python Package Index (PyPI) ecosystem. This dataset captures install and post-install-time traces from 14,271 Python packages, of which 7,127 are malicious. The packages are executed in an isolated sandbox environment using an extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) kernel and user-level probes. It captures 36 real-time features, that includes system calls, network traffic, resource usages, directory access patterns, dependency logs, and installation behaviors, enabling the study of next-gen attack vectors. ML analysis using the QUT-DV25 dataset identified four malicious PyPI packages previously labeled as benign, each with thousands of downloads. These packages deployed covert remote access and multi-phase payloads, were reported to PyPI maintainers, and subsequently removed. This highlights the practical value of QUT-DV25, as it outperforms reactive, metadata, and static datasets, offering a robust foundation for developing and benchmarking advanced threat detection within the evolving software supply chain ecosystem.

Security concerns for Internet of Things (IoT) applications have been alarming because of their widespread use in different enterprise systems. The potential threats to these applications are constantly emerging and changing, and, therefore, sophisticated and dependable defense solutions are necessary against such threats. With the rapid development of IoT networks and evolving threat types, the traditional machine learning based IDS must update to cope with the security requirements of the current sustainable IoT environment. In recent years, deep learning and deep transfer learning have progressed and experienced great success in different fields and have emerged as a potential solution for dependable network intrusion detection. However, new and emerging challenges have arisen related to the accuracy, efficiency, scalability, and dependability of the traditional IDS in a heterogeneous IoT setup. This manuscript proposes a deep transfer learning based dependable IDS model that outperforms several existing approaches. The unique contributions include effective attribute selection, which is best suited to identify normal and attack scenarios for a small amount of labeled data, designing a dependable deep transfer learning based ResNet model and evaluating considering real-world data. To this end, a comprehensive experimental performance evaluation has been conducted. Extensive analysis and performance evaluation show that the proposed model is robust, more efficient, and has demonstrated better performance, ensuring dependability.