MAL-2026-13633 Malicious code in modern-localization (npm)

Malicious package Published
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.

Sources

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