MAL-2026-17169 Malicious code in @alphaspace/core (npm)

preinstall.js runs unconditionally on npm install and POSTs a JSON payload to a hardcoded Pipedream collector at https://f5778d1d81cc30c39dcdd0da5ca1d49a.m.pipedream.net. The payload includes os.hostname(), os.userInfo() username, platform/arch/node version, process.env.INIT_CWD, process.cwd(), the consumer project's package.json name and version, whether the consumer declares an @alphaspace dependency, npm registry hosts parsed from ~/.npmrc, CI-related environment variable names, and proxy host configuration. The same script performs DNS resolution against a hardcoded list of *.yahoo.com and .ouryahoo.com internal hostnames (including istio-system.prod1-gq1.omega.yahoo.com and buildr.corp.yahoo.com), and for any banana.stand..yahoo.com name that resolves it issues an https.request with rejectUnauthorized:false, capturing the response status, Server header, and first 512 bytes of the body and forwarding them in a banana_proof field of the exfil payload. The @alphaspace scope name and an in-file 'authorized security research' banner form a dependency-confusion lure aimed at Yahoo internal builds; the installer-side behavior — host fingerprinting, npmrc/registry disclosure, and TLS-verification-disabled internal-network probing from the installer's host — fires against any machine that resolves this package.