MAL-2026-16204 Malicious code in @prime0/alanced-match (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-16204 is a malicious package: @prime0/alanced-match (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-2026-16204/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-16204/index.md)
- Package
- @prime0/alanced-match
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-16204?
MAL-2026-16204 is a malicious package in @prime0/alanced-match, published on 16 Sep 2026.
Official description
The package @prime0/alanced-match is a 1-character-drop typosquat of balanced-match. Its postinstall.js runs automatically on npm install and POSTs a host fingerprint (hostname, username, platform, arch, cwd, node version, pid, non-internal IP addresses, uptime, package name) to the hardcoded bare-IP endpoint http://69.48.229.140:8080/b. Its main entry index.js opens a require-time HTTP polling channel to the same host, retrieves JSON commands from /c every 30 seconds (with 10-minute re-beacons), executes them via child_process.exec, and posts stdout/stderr back to /r — providing full remote code execution on the installer's machine. A source comment self-identifies the code as a 'Minimal stealth agent' and 'typosquat'.
What should I do about MAL-2026-16204?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.