MAL-2026-12039 Malicious code in data-format-helper (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-12039 is a malicious package: data-format-helper (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-2026-12039/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-12039/index.md)
- Package
- data-format-helper
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-12039?
MAL-2026-12039 is a malicious package in data-format-helper, published on 5 Aug 2026.
Official description
The package advertises itself as a data-formatting utility but ships a postinstall.js that auto-executes on npm install and runs shell commands to collect installer/CI identity and secrets, then sends them to an attacker-controlled Burp Collaborator subdomain over plain HTTP. Observed collection includes hostname, whoami/id, sudo -l output, process and network state, GitHub Actions environment (GITHUB_TOKEN, GITHUB_REPOSITORY, GITHUB_ACTOR, RUN_ID and related), and any environment variables matching KEY|TOKEN|SECRET|NPM_TOKEN|AWS_|AZURE|GCP|GITHUB_TOKEN, each base64-encoded and sent via curl to http://pzs5w7ntzhsnepwk564lyfdci3oucl0a.oastify.com/. The script additionally probes cloud instance-metadata endpoints for AWS, Aliyun, GCP and Tencent and forwards the responses to the same collector. A separate phase probes the internal hostname tst.woa.com and base64-encodes the response body of an internal flag.html before sending it to the collector, indicating targeted reconnaissance against a specific internal (Tencent) environment consistent with a dependency-confusion decoy. The advertised 'data formatting utilities' description and benign color-helper index.js are cover metadata unrelated to the postinstall behavior.
What should I do about MAL-2026-12039?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.