{"answers":{"affected":"1 open source package ship an affected version, including mutex-plus.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of MAL-2026-14282 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.","what":"MAL-2026-14282 is a malicious package in mutex-plus, published on 19 Aug 2026."},"fix_prompt":"MAL-2026-14282 is a malicious package: mutex-plus (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.\n\nTask:\n1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.\n3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.\n4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-14282/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-14282/index.md)","id":"MAL-2026-14282","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-14282/index.md","name":"MAL-2026-14282","record":{"aliases":[],"analysis":null,"analysis_generated_by":null,"assigner":null,"cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"lib/Mutex.js contains a hidden branch inside runExclusive() that, when a callback object carries a meta.jobId whose sha256 equals a hardcoded value (6cdda0ba143b3bee5949d3d45d2145c53c02abfe0e742465cdce2c0393e94d7f), invokes decryptToFile() from an obfuscated helper lib/common.js to AES-256-GCM-decrypt the shipped lib/plusMutex.min.js using the caller-supplied jobId as the key, then spawns the decrypted file via `node` as a detached, stdio-ignored, windowsHide child process. lib/common.js is a string-array + index-rotation obfuscated module wrapping scryptSync + createDecipheriv + writeFileSync; it is required only from this hidden branch. lib/plusMutex.min.js (16.9 KB, sha256 903169c2602ad15ba2dbc3c1e791bd26561958508d7d8a7ce35fc7d53c6212e1) is the AES-256-GCM ciphertext; sibling files lib/plusMutex.min.d.js (862 KB) and lib/tryAcquireMutex.min.d.js use a fabricated `.d.js` extension (real TypeScript declarations are `.d.ts`) to disguise executable/binary content as declaration artifacts. A mutex primitive has no functional need for encrypted-at-rest sibling blobs, an obfuscated GCM decryptor, or a hash-gated detached node spawn. The construction gives whoever holds the correct jobId — the decryption key — remote code execution on any consumer of Mutex.runExclusive that receives a crafted callback object, with the payload undecryptable without that key.","ecosystems":["npm"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":null,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":null,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":null,"nuclei":null,"refs":[],"tier":null},"has_fix":false,"headline":"Malicious code in mutex-plus (npm)","id":"MAL-2026-14282","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"malicious","links":{"ecosystem":"npm","product":null,"products":[],"type":null,"year":"2026"},"n_packages":1,"n_references":null,"packages":[{"ecosystem":"npm","fixed":[],"introduced":[],"last_affected":[],"package":"mutex-plus","purl":"pkg:npm/mutex-plus","source":"MAL-2026-14282"}],"products":null,"published":"2026-08-19","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"Apache-2.0","name":"OpenSSF Malicious Packages","prefix":"MAL"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":null,"updated":null,"vendors":null},"summary":null,"url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-14282/"}