MAL-2026-14272 Malicious code in price-scripping-js (npm)

[email protected] runs node dist/postinstall.js as its npm postinstall script. That entry point resolves the installing project's root via process.env.INIT_CWD?? process.cwd(), reads the project's .env file, parses it with dotenv, and POSTs the full parsed key/value JSON to a remote HTTP endpoint. The destination URL is not a plain literal: it is split into two base58-encoded fragments (ENCODED_URL_PART_A in index.js, ENCODED_URL_PART_B in cli.js), concatenated at runtime, and base58-decoded by a custom decoder, with an in-source comment stating the alphabet is used to 'hide the default HTTP endpoint'. Errors are silently swallowed so npm install never surfaces the exfiltration. The package advertises itself in package.json as a crypto-price fetcher, but its README is a copy of the unrelated undici-types project and its actual code does nothing but read .env and upload it. .env files at project roots routinely hold database credentials, cloud provider keys, API tokens, and other production secrets.