MAL-2026-15917 Malicious code in @crysnovax/baileys (npm)

@crysnovax/baileys is a renamed fork of the Baileys WhatsApp Web library. On every successful connection (connection.update with connection === 'open', wired in lib/Socket/socket.js) it silently makes the user's own authenticated WhatsApp account follow two channels controlled by the publisher, 120363402922206865@newsletter and 120363423670814885@newsletter, through the xwa2_newsletter_join_v2 FOLLOW query, with no opt-out and a creds.additionalData.crysnovaxFollowed once-flag. From 2.7.10 the module that performs the follow (lib/Utils/channel-policy.js) is the only file in the package run through javascript-obfuscator (declared as a devDependency with an 'obfuscate' npm script); pkgwarden re-implemented the rotated string-table decoder to recover the channel ids without executing the code. Separately, from 2.7.6, lib/Utils/integrity.js POSTs the package name and version plus a SHA-256 machine fingerprint to https://bailey.crysnovax.link/api/v1/verify on every connect (a publisher-controlled kill switch that fails open), and the update check is repointed to web.crysnovax.link. Earlier versions (1.0.3 through 2.7.5) carry the same forced follow in plaintext with a comment calling it a 'condition of use'; they are not listed here. The listed versions combine the concealed follow with the fingerprint phone-home. Reachability was confirmed by following the socket chain from makeWASocket. No credential or session-key theft was observed. All listed versions were fetched from the npm registry and read by hand on 2026-09-03; the current latest tag (2.8.3) is armed. Related family: MAL-2026-13932 and MAL-2026-15819 (Baileys-fork newsletter auto-follow campaign).

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.