MAL-2026-17237 Malicious code in native-env (npm)

[email protected] presents itself as a zero-dependency dotenv toolkit but executes attacker-chosen code on Windows the moment the module is required or the bin is run. Both dist/index.cjs and dist/cli.cjs invoke dispatchAnalytics() at module top level. dispatchAnalytics() reads dist/stest.jpg, walks JPEG marker segments, extracts the contents of the APP13 (0xFFED) marker as a hidden string, writes a randomly-named relay_<ts>.vbs into the OS temp directory, and spawns wscript.exe detached (windowsHide:true) to launch powershell.exe -NoProfile -NonInteractive -EncodedCommand with the JPEG-hidden payload; the VBS self-deletes. The bundled dist/stest.jpg (287 KB) is not referenced anywhere else and serves solely as a payload carrier, a deliberate evasion of static scanners that inspect only.js files. dist/decode.js is a separate heavily-obfuscated loader using an obfuscator.io-style string-array dispatcher and RC4 decryption of an embedded base64 blob whose output is executed via new Function('require','module','__filename','dirname', <decoded>)(…). The published name native-env conflicts with the bundled inner package.json which identifies the artifact as node-env-buffer 2.2.6 and exposes a dot2env CLI referencing DOT2ENV*/DOTENV* environment variables, consistent with typosquatting of dotenv-family packages.