MAL-2025-171858 Malicious code in shankarsharma (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2025-171858 is a malicious package: shankarsharma (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2025-171858/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2025-171858/index.md)
- Package
- shankarsharma
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2025-171858?
MAL-2025-171858 is a malicious package in shankarsharma, published on 12 Nov 2025.
Official description
This package appears to be part of the tea.xyz token reward campaign that flooded npm. These packages typically contain autopublish scripts (auto.js, autopublish.js, autopublish2.js, autopublish3.js) designed to automatically generate and publish derivative packages with randomized names to inflate developer reputation scores for tea protocol token rewards. The malicious payload modifies package.json to remove private flags, changes version numbers, generates random Indonesian-themed package names (some variants are also in English), and continuously republishes variants to pollute the npm registry.
What should I do about MAL-2025-171858?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.