MAL-2026-14393 Malicious code in sm-admin (npm)

Package [email protected] defines preinstall and postinstall lifecycle scripts that issue plain-HTTP GET requests to a hardcoded bare-IP endpoint at http://16.192.173.5/sm-admin/pre and http://16.192.173.5/sm-admin/post. Installing the package causes the installer host to contact this endpoint, revealing that the internal-sounding name 'sm-admin' resolved on that machine and disclosing the installer's source IP to the operator of that endpoint. The destination is a bare IPv4 over cleartext HTTP with no relationship to any publisher, and the elevated version number (99.0.0) together with the callback shape is characteristic of a dependency-confusion probe against a private-registry name. The endpoint is attacker-controlled and unauthenticated, so the response body served to preinstall/postinstall could change at any time.

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.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'sm-admin' @ 99.0.1 (npm) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

• The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.