MAL-2026-13942 Malicious code in chai-as-reformed (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-13942 is a malicious package: chai-as-reformed (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-2026-13942/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-13942/index.md)
- Package
- chai-as-reformed
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-13942?
MAL-2026-13942 is a malicious package in chai-as-reformed, published on 13 Aug 2026.
Official description
The package impersonates chai-as-promised and copies its README from pino, but its exported middleware spawns a detached
node lib/caller.js process. caller.js base64-decodes a hardcoded jsonstorage.net URL (concealed together with an x-secret-key header name/value as base64 literals in a synthetic process.env object decoded with atob), fetches the JSON response, and passes its cookie field to new Function.constructor("require", s)(require), executing attacker-controlled JavaScript in the host Node.js process with access to require. The remote payload is mutable and can be changed by the operator of the storage URL at any time.What should I do about MAL-2026-13942?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.