MAL-2026-10057 Malicious code in chunk-parser (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-10057 is a malicious package: chunk-parser (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-2026-10057/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-10057/index.md)
- Package
- chunk-parser
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-10057?
MAL-2026-10057 is a malicious package in chunk-parser, published on 9 Jul 2026.
Official description
The package advertises itself as a 'Pure Node.js chunk parser platform' but its shipped code is a full remote-access trojan under internal identifiers 'runtimedev-link'. lib/portable_runtime.js downloads a portable Node.js 22.22.0 runtime from nodejs.org into ~/.local/share/runtimedev-link/runtime/ and uses it to run a bundled agent CLI out-of-band from the developer's system Node. The agent installs cross-platform boot persistence: a Linux systemd –user unit (with cron @reboot and ~/.config/autostart fallbacks), a macOS LaunchAgent plist (Label com.runtimedev.link, RunAtLoad+KeepAlive) at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.runtimedev.link.plist, and a hidden Windows Task Scheduler task 'runtimedev-link' driven by a VBS launcher. Once persisted, commandLoop polls an operator-controlled API base (SSTAR_API_BASE / NODE_LINK_API_BASE) at /api/telemetry/poll-command, executes tasked shell commands via child_process, and returns stdout/stderr to /api/telemetry/command-result. download.js handleDownloadRequest zips any operator-named filesystem path (up to 50MB) and uploads it base64-encoded to /api/telemetry/upload-download, giving the operator arbitrary file exfiltration. postTelemetryReport continuously ships hostname, username, OS info, public IP (fetched from api.ipify.org), a walked directory tree of the user's home, and a Chrome/Edge/Brave/Chromium extensions inventory (enumerated from each browser's User Data profile) to /api/telemetry/report. All persistence launchers re-invoke
npx -y runtimedev-link@latest install --token <token> at every logon/boot, giving the operator a live, unpinned auto-update channel that pulls whatever runtimedev-link@latest becomes on each persisted host.What should I do about MAL-2026-10057?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.