MAL-2026-10044 Malicious code in chai-as-serialized (npm)

The package's main entry (index.js) spawns a detached node child process running lib/initializeCaller.js as a side effect of invoking the exported middleware factory. lib/initializeCaller.js constructs a fake process.env object whose fields hold base64 blobs; DEV_API_KEY decodes to https://tomato-brunhilda-40.tiiny.site/index.json and DEV_SECRET_KEY/DEV_SECRET_VALUE decode to an x-secret-key request header. The script fetches the JSON body from that anonymous host and executes it via new Function.constructor("require", response)(require), granting the remote host arbitrary code execution with require access in the installer/consumer's Node process. The package name mimics chai-as-promised and the README is copied from pino (pino badges, pino narrative, keywords fast,logger,stream,json), while the shipped code has no relation to either — the impersonation is a lure to attract installs to a remote-code-execution dropper. Base64-encoding of the C2 URL and header, disguised as environment-variable configuration, confirms hostile intent.