MAL-2026-16441 Malicious code in moidevl (npm)

Malicious package Published
Package
moidevl
Registry
npm

What is MAL-2026-16441?

MAL-2026-16441 is a malicious package in moidevl, published on 23 Sep 2026.

Official description

Despite a README describing a 'Windows diagnostic utility,' the package implements an anti-proctoring overlay for cheating on remote exams (Safe Exam Browser / AMCAT). main.js drives an Electron window hidden from screen capture via SetWindowDisplayAffinity(WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE) and WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW/NOACTIVATE, launched as a detached process renamed to 'SearchApp.exe' to masquerade as Windows Search, and polls for a proctoring process 'core.exe' via tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq core.exe" to temporarily normalize the affinity flag while the proctor scans. bin/kalamasha-tool.js spawns a 'Ghost Watchdog' that copies node_modules/electron/dist/electron.exe to SearchApp.exe and immortally respawns it with backoff when killed, logging to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostics\boot.log. bin/chrome_cookies.ps1 walks Chrome/Edge/Brave 'User Data' profile directories, copies the locked Cookies SQLite DB to %TEMP%, reads the DPAPI-wrapped os_crypt.encrypted_key from Local State, and AES-256-GCM-decrypts cookie values for openai.com, chatgpt.com, auth0.openai.com and auth.openai.com; the decrypted cookies are injected into an embedded Electron session to drive those AI services under the browser owner's identity. main.js captures the foreground exam window (screenshot plus UI-Automation text extraction) and posts the content to https://ipc.shadxino.internal via HTTP POST from lines 364 and 368. The tarball also ships a 27MB opaque bin/uia_extract.exe alongside a Python source equivalent, invoked as python "${pyPath}" || "${exePath}".

What should I do about MAL-2026-16441?

Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.

Sources

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