The Software Supply Chain (SSC) has captured considerable attention from attackers seeking to infiltrate systems and undermine organizations. There is evidence indicating that adversaries utilize Social Engineering (SocE) techniques specifically aimed at software developers. That is, they interact with developers at critical steps in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), such as accessing Github repositories, incorporating code dependencies, and obtaining approval for Pull Requests (PR) to introduce malicious code. This paper aims to comprehensively explore the existing and emerging SocE tactics employed by adversaries to trick Software Engineers (SWEs) into delivering malicious software. By analyzing a diverse range of resources, which encompass established academic literature and real-world incidents, the paper systematically presents an overview of these manipulative strategies within the realm of the SSC. Such insights prove highly beneficial for threat modeling and security gap analysis.

翻译：软件供应链（SSC）已引起攻击者的极大关注，他们试图渗透系统并破坏组织。有证据表明，对手会利用专门针对软件开发人员的社会工程学（SocE）技术。也就是说，他们在软件开发生命周期（SDLC）的关键步骤中与开发者互动，例如访问 GitHub 仓库、引入代码依赖项以及审批拉取请求（PR），从而引入恶意代码。本文旨在全面探索对手用于诱骗软件工程师（SWEs）交付恶意软件的现有及新兴社会工程策略。通过分析涵盖既有学术文献和真实世界事件的多样化资源，本文系统性地呈现了这些在软件供应链范畴内的操纵策略概览。此类洞察对于威胁建模和安全差距分析极为有益。