MAL-2026-12508 Malicious code in @shiftmarkets/no-brainer-sdk (npm)

The package runs node dist/recon.js as a postinstall lifecycle script on every npm install. The script collects host reconnaissance from the installer machine — hostname, username, SUDO_USER, homedir, cwd, network interface addresses (including internal/private IPs), CI indicators, npm lifecycle metadata, and the full list of environment variable names — and additionally filters those names against a credential-focused regex (AWS, GCP, GOOGLE, AZURE, NPM, NODE_AUTH, DOCKER, KUBE, VAULT, TOKEN, SECRET, KEY, PASS, CRED, GITHUB, GITLAB, SSH) to produce a secretish_names list. The JSON payload is POSTed over plain HTTP to the hardcoded bare-IPv4 endpoint http://138.68.108.20:80/cb, which is not a Shift Markets domain. The code labels itself as 'NON-SENSITIVE telemetry' but the destination is an unrelated bare IP and the installer never opted in. Enumerating which cloud/CI secret names exist on the host maps the target's credential inventory for follow-up attacks.