MAL-2026-13445 Malicious code in elephant-tusk-runner (npm)

Malicious package Published
Package
elephant-tusk-runner
Registry
npm

What is MAL-2026-13445?

MAL-2026-13445 is a malicious package in elephant-tusk-runner, published on 6 Aug 2026.

Official description

server.js starts an Express + WebSocket server via app.listen(PORT,…) with no host argument, defaulting the bind to 0.0.0.0, with fully open CORS (Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *) and no authentication. A WebSocket route /terminal-stream and HTTP POST /api/v1/workspace-terminal-command each spawn a bash or powershell.exe PTY and pipe network-received bytes directly into ptySession.write(…), giving any peer that can reach port 4201 an interactive shell on the host running the tool. Additional endpoints on the same listener call child_process.exec with attacker-controllable arguments, including git clone --depth=1 ${targetGitUrl}..., composer install && php artisan key:generate, npm install, php "${terminalFile}", and taskkill/kill on arbitrary PIDs, plus a fetch-proxy that forwards arbitrary target URLs. The listener is started by npm start and by the tusk/elephant CLI shipped in the package's bin entries. On any developer or build machine on a shared or reachable network, this exposes a full remote-shell and remote-code-execution surface for the duration the tool runs.

What should I do about MAL-2026-13445?

Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.

Sources

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