MAL-2026-12377 Malicious code in express-mongo-santi (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-12377 is a malicious package: express-mongo-santi (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-2026-12377/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-12377/index.md)
- Package
- express-mongo-santi
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-12377?
MAL-2026-12377 is a malicious package in express-mongo-santi, published on 5 Aug 2026.
Official description
The package's main file index.js is a heavily obfuscated bundle (obfuscator.io-style rotated string array with base64+RC4 decoders) whose only purpose is a remote-fetch-and-execute pipeline that fires when the module is require()'d. On load it pulls in os, fs, path, crypto, child_process, and https, assembles a hardcoded IPv4 destination from four numeric octets concatenated at runtime, issues an HTTPS GET to that host, splits the response on ':' into an IV and ciphertext, derives an AES key with crypto.scryptSync, decrypts the body with createDecipheriv, writes the plaintext to a file under os.homedir(), and spawns it via child_process with cwd set to the home directory. Module, method, and destination strings are all reconstructed at runtime through the decoders, and an uncaughtException handler suppresses errors. The package name is also a typosquat of express-mongo-sanitize. Installing or importing this package results in arbitrary attacker-controlled code executing on the installer's machine under the installer's user identity.
What should I do about MAL-2026-12377?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.