MAL-2026-16178 Malicious code in process-lhpm (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-16178 is a malicious package: process-lhpm (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-16178/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-16178/index.md)
- Package
- process-lhpm
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-16178?
MAL-2026-16178 is a malicious package in process-lhpm, published on 15 Sep 2026.
Official description
On require/import, index.js auto-invokes initialize(), which spawns a detached, stdio-suppressed
node loader.js background process. loader.js performs an HTTPS GET to https://api.npoint.io/33e8d008c334b060adad, base64-decodes the code field of the JSON response, and executes it via new Function('require','__dirname','__filename','module','exports', decodedCode)(...) with full Node privileges and require access. The remote payload URL is stored in a variable named API_KEY to obscure its role. api.npoint.io is a mutable third-party JSON hosting service, so the executed code can be swapped by the operator at any time without republishing the package. The detached child process outlives the importing application, establishing a persistent remote-code-loading channel on any host that imports this package.What should I do about MAL-2026-16178?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.