Unapproved VSCode Extension Installation Detected via vsce-sign.exe
Detects installation or update of a VSCode extension from an unapproved publisher by monitoring for vsce-sign.exe signature verification events in DeviceProcessEvents. VSCode invokes vsce-sign.exe once per extension install or auto-update to verify the extension's marketplace signature before extraction. The full extension slug is passed as the --package argument, making this a reliable, install-time signal that fires for all extension types regardless of whether the extension has a background process or language server. Extensions are evaluated against an approved publisher list maintained as an embedded datatable. Publishers are matched on the prefix before the first . in the extension slug (e.g., ms-python from ms-python.python), allowing publisher-level approval rather than per-extension management. This detection was developed in response to the TeamPCP supply chain campaign (May 2026), in which malicious VSCode extensions were distributed via fake GitHub issue notifications targeting developers.
Microsoft Sentinel (KQL)
