MAL-2026-15969 Malicious code in array-frames (npm)

The npm package [email protected] advertises a trivial array chunking utility but ships an obfuscator.io-wrapped payload as its main module. On require(), a top-level IIFE in array-frames.js creates a hidden directory under os.homedir(), writes a decoded main.js and a synthetic package.json declaring dependencies on axios, better-sqlite3, node-machine-id, socket.io-client (plus ffi-napi on win32), spawns npm install in that directory via process.execPath, and then launches the staged payload detached with unref(). On Windows the dropper additionally writes a.vbs shim and, when %WINDIR%\system32\wscript.exe is present, launches the payload through wscript.exe with windowsHide:true and detached:true to survive parent-process exit and hide the window; it falls back to a detached node launch otherwise. The staged main.js is itself a second nested obfuscator.io program. The package impersonates Blake Embrey's node-frames/array-frames utility — README badges and install instructions point at npmjs.org/package/node-frames and github.com/blakeembrey/node-frames, package.json reuses the author identity [email protected], and dependencies self-reference "array-frames":"^2.3.6" — none of which matches the actual obfuscated dropper body.

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.