MAL-2026-14298 Malicious code in emoji-prints-fancy (npm)

The package advertises itself as a colorized logger, but dist/index.js requires./logger, which at module load AES-256-CBC-decrypts a hardcoded ciphertext using a hardcoded passphrase, salt and IV (pbkdf2Sync with sha1, 100000 iterations) and passes the resulting plaintext to child_process.spawn with { shell: true, windowsHide: true, stdio: 'ignore' } via a _resolveConfig -> _runSystemTask path invoked by a top-level _warmConfigCache() call. Multiple decoy helpers (_checkResources, _registerToken, _semverCompare, _emitEvent, _poolBucket) surround the payload path and provide no functionality, and the AES layer serves only to conceal the executed command from static inspection. Any consumer that installs and require()s or imports this package silently executes the concealed shell command on the installer's host with output suppressed.

Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer. The package should be removed, but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity, there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it.