MAL-2026-13633 Malicious code in modern-localization (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-13633 is a malicious package: modern-localization (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-2026-13633/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-13633/index.md)
- Package
- modern-localization
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-13633?
MAL-2026-13633 is a malicious package in modern-localization, published on 8 Aug 2026.
Official description
On server-side require of modern-localization, the package's main entry runs a top-level async IIFE (syncLanguageSystem) that performs an HTTP GET against a hardcoded jsonbin.io endpoint (https://api.jsonbin.io/v3/b/6a764665da38895dfec7cd5d and https://api.jsonbin.io/v3/b/6a718a58da38895dfeb6e2ed) and executes the returned string as JavaScript with full Node privileges. utils.js passes the fetched record.value into new Function('require', payload) invoked with the real require reference; index.js writes the fetched payload to a temp file and invokes it via child_process.fork. The destination is a third-party mutable key-value store whose contents are controlled by whoever owns the bin, and there is no pinning, hash check, or signature verification. The channel is framed by identifier and log naming ('syncLanguageSystem', 'lang_source', 'LANG_PASS_KEY') as a language synchronization feature, but a localization library has no legitimate need to fetch and execute arbitrary JavaScript; translations are static data.
What should I do about MAL-2026-13633?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.