MAL-2026-10721 Malicious code in @whalent/agent (npm)

The package installs a whalent CLI daemon that opens a persistent WebSocket connection (wss://) to a Whalent Memory gateway and, per its own README, accepts remote commands including 'upgrade' and 'restart' from that gateway. dist/index.cjs contains an npmInstallCommand builder that assembles npm install -g @whalent/agent@<version> --registry=<DEFAULT_NPM_REGISTRY|CHINA_NPM_REGISTRY> strings driven by the gateway's chosen version — meaning whoever controls (or compromises) the gateway can cause the daemon's host to install and execute an arbitrary version of the package as the user running the daemon. The core bundle additionally references process.env.SHELL and localhost RDP/VNC ports (127.0.0.1:3389, 5900, 5901), and the dependency set includes @xterm/headless, node-pty (optional), ssh2, and ws, indicating terminal/PTY and remote-session capability reachable from the same gateway channel. Both dist/index.cjs (main/bin entry) and the 13 MB dist/core.cjs are transformed with javascript-obfuscator (string-array rotator, _0x-named helpers, control-flow flattening), and javascript-obfuscator is listed in devDependencies — the obfuscation covers the gateway command dispatcher and shell sinks. The daemon fires only when the operator explicitly runs whalent --token …, not on npm install or on require(), but once running it provides a network-reachable code-execution and shell surface on the host controlled by the gateway operator.