npm (Organization): news timeline & CVEs

npm registry keeps removed-version timestamps but drops the reason (Sept 2025 campaign as evidence)

npm keeps timestamps for removed package versions but drops the removal reason, hindering supply-chain response.

An oss-security post reports a retention asymmetry in npm's public package documents that matters for supply-chain incident response. When a version is removed, it disappears from the versions map and direct fetches return 404, but its key usually remains in the time map of publish timestamps. The registry therefore preserves evidence that a version existed while dropping the reason for removal. The author points to a September 2025 campaign as evidence.

oss-securitySep 23, 15:17 UTC · 3d agoResearch

Malicious B-tree NPM Package Accumulates Millions of Downloads

Ongoing NPM supply chain campaign hides malware in indexed-btree's prototype code, reaching 2 million weekly downloads before detection.

Checkmarx reports an ongoing NPM supply chain attack where indexed-btree, mimicking the legitimate sorted-btree library, reached 2 million weekly downloads by hiding its trigger in the BTree.prototype.set method instead of an install script, bypassing NPM protections. The first stage collects system information, exfiltrates it to a hardcoded Slack channel and Telegram chat, then retrieves and decrypts a second stage from a Sepolia blockchain smart contract serving as C2. Nine related packages (btree-core, btree-lru-cache, sliding-score-window, and others) accumulated over 5 million downloads before removal. A legitimate-looking GitHub repository with many commits built trust, and the actor's contract was previously seen in mutex-forge, with an apparent profit of 109 ETH (about $300,000).

SecurityWeekupdated Sep 24, 11:07 UTC · 2d agofirst Sep 22, 11:33 UTC · 4d agoMalware in the wild 8 sources

GHAPPIER Supply Chain Attack Compromises 65 GitHub Repositories and Poisons npm Package

GHAPPIER supply chain campaign compromised 65 GitHub repositories and pushed a malicious four-stage npm loader via compromised maintainer trusted publishing.

CloudSEK tracked the GHAPPIER operation, which reached 65 GitHub repositories across 22 accounts; on September 9 an intruder used the @dforge-core/dforge-mcp maintainer account for 105 minutes to publish version 0.2.21 containing a four-stage remote code loader. The poisoned release stayed live 35 minutes, carried valid npm provenance via GitHub Actions OIDC trusted publishing, and its final stage self-deleted to evade disk searches, with stages still responding five days later. A second payload family matched the PolinRider campaign, which harvests cached Git credentials and reads C2 configuration from an Ethereum blockchain transaction. No downstream organizational compromise was confirmed; users should pin version 0.2.22 and audit for 0.2.21.

Cyber Security NewsSep 22, 10:21 UTC · 4d agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

Malicious npm Package indexed-btree Hid Its Loader in Runtime Code Before Removal

Checkmarx details malicious npm package indexed-btree hiding its loader in runtime code, netting €230,000; Socket flags PolinRider Packagist compromise.

Checkmarx reports the malicious npm package indexed-btree, uploaded June 18, 2026 by user 'charlessadler25' and mimicking the legit sorted-btree library, hid its loader inside BTree.prototype.set() instead of lifecycle scripts, amassing millions of downloads and earning about €230,933 (109 ETH). The malware fingerprints hosts, beacons to a Slack channel and Telegram bot, and uses EtherHiding on a Sepolia smart contract to fetch staged encrypted payloads before deleting artifacts. Nine related packages were removed from npm. Separately, Socket detailed the North Korea-linked PolinRider campaign compromising the Packagist package visanduma/nova-two-factor via the LaHiRu developer account.

The Hacker Newsupdated Sep 24, 11:07 UTC · 2d agofirst Sep 22, 09:38 UTC · 4d agoMalware in the wild 8 sources

Hackers Compromise 65 GitHub Repositories and Poison npm Package With Hidden Backdoor

CloudSEK details GHAPPIER campaign compromising 65 GitHub repos to backdoor the @dforge-core/dforge-mcp npm package with cryptographically verified provenance.

The GHAPPIER operation compromised at least 65 GitHub repositories, 73 files and 22 accounts, using npm's OIDC trusted publishing via a modified GitHub Actions workflow to release a backdoored @dforge-core/dforge-mcp version 0.2.21 that carried a valid Sigstore provenance attestation. The loader activates only when the MCP server launches, running a four-stage chain that delivers a self-deleting remote shell, evading install-time and dependency scanning. A second payload exactly matches the PolinRider credential-stealing campaign, and its configuration is fetched via an empty Ethereum transaction to eliminate a blockable C2 domain.

GBHackersupdated Sep 22, 10:21 UTC · 4d agofirst Sep 22, 08:35 UTC · 5d agoMalware in the wild 3 sources1

New npm malware finds a way around install script defenses

Checkmarx details npm supply-chain malware hiding in BTree methods, using Ethereum smart-contract C2 and Slack/Telegram exfiltration; ten packages pulled.

Checkmarx uncovered malicious npm packages, including btree-core with more than 1.9 million downloads, that embed their payload in the BTree.prototype.set runtime method to bypass npm's June lifecycle-script restrictions. A detached Node.js loader fingerprints the host (architecture, hostname, CPU, memory, uptime) and exfiltrates data to hardcoded Slack and Telegram channels. The C2 address is hidden in a Sepolia Ethereum testnet smart contract whose getter/setter functions the malware polls, providing takedown resilience; a second-stage payload is unlocked from encrypted contract chunks. Nine additional packages were removed from the registry, and attackers maintained a legitimate-looking GitHub repository with an AI-generated profile image; the campaign is ongoing and IOCs were shared.

CSO Onlineupdated Sep 24, 11:07 UTC · 2d agofirst Sep 21, 14:27 UTC · 5d agoMalware in the wild 8 sources

Attackers Abuse npm Trusted Publishing in GHAPPIER Campaign

Attackers abused npm trusted publishing to ship the GHAPPIER loader via a legitimate package in the North Korea-linked PolinRider campaign.

Attackers compromised the npm package @dforge-core/dforge-mcp, using trusted publishing to release a malicious version (0.2.21) with valid provenance on September 9. The release contained the GHAPPIER loader, which opened a four-stage chain ending in a remote shell that deleted itself. The campaign is linked to PolinRider, attributed to North Korea, which uses cryptocurrency transactions for C2 configuration to evade infrastructure takedowns.

Infosecurity Magazineupdated Sep 22, 10:21 UTC · 4d agofirst Sep 21, 13:30 UTC · 5d agoMalware in the wild 3 sources

CASHEWS: Source Preprocessor for LLM-based Malicious Package Detection

CASHEWS preprocessor boosts LLM-based malicious npm package detection, raising coverage to 98.8-100% and cutting false negatives by up to 18.6 points.

Researchers present CASHEWS, a JavaScript preprocessor for LLM-based malicious package detection that deobfuscates code iteratively, extracts bundled modules and dynamically executed code, identifies malicious sinks, and computes backward slices to produce compact detector input. Threat actors evade LLM detectors by exploiting limited context windows with high token-density obfuscation and by bundling malicious code with benign packages, as seen in supply-chain attacks such as Shai-Hulud. Across 512 large package files, two scanner types, and three LLMs, CASHEWS raised analysis coverage from 69.1-85.7% to 98.8-100% and reduced false-negative rates by up to 18.6 percentage points. Median preprocessing time is 30 seconds while net analysis cost drops 34.6%.

arXiv cs.CRSep 16, 16:00 UTC · 10d agoResearch

npm

Timeline8 articles

Appears with