{"answers":{"affected":"1 open source package ship an affected version, including @rennnpm/baileys.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of MAL-2026-17374 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.","what":"MAL-2026-17374 is a malicious package in @rennnpm/baileys, published on 29 Oct 2026."},"fix_prompt":"MAL-2026-17374 is a malicious package: @rennnpm/baileys (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.\n\nTask:\n1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.\n3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.\n4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17374/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17374/index.md)","id":"MAL-2026-17374","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17374/index.md","name":"MAL-2026-17374","record":{"aliases":[],"analysis":null,"analysis_generated_by":null,"assigner":null,"cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"This package is part of a large family (100+ identified as of September 2026) of near-identical\nforks of the Baileys WhatsApp Web library that inject a covert channel-subscription action into\nthe WhatsApp socket layer. On connect, the injected code issues an authenticated `w:mex` FOLLOW\nquery (query_id 7871414976211147) against one or more attacker-chosen WhatsApp Channel/Newsletter\nJIDs, using the installer's own authenticated WhatsApp session -- silently subscribing the\nvictim's account to channels it never asked to join.\n\nThe target JID(s) are hidden from casual source review via one of several obfuscation techniques\nobserved across the family: a plain string literal, base64 encoding, base64+XOR, or a char-code\narray reconstructed at runtime. Some variants instead fetch a mutable, attacker-controlled remote\nJSON/JS list of target JIDs from GitHub or another host at runtime, letting the target list change\nafter installation without a new npm publish. Every sample in the family shares the same underlying\nmechanism (a wrapped/patched socket-connect routine that fires the FOLLOW query some seconds after\nconnect), even though the package name, JID value(s), and obfuscation/delivery method differ per\nfork.\n\nThe malicious action abuses the installer's own authenticated WhatsApp session to gain reach and\nsubscribers for attacker-controlled channels; it does not exfiltrate credentials, establish\npersistence, or execute arbitrary remote code.\n\nAffected package: @rennnpm/baileys (npm), version(s): 1.0.0.\n\npackage.json declares the `libsignal` dependency as `github:tenka-san/libsignal-node`, a bare GitHub reference to a personal user's fork with no commit SHA, tag, or version constraint. On `npm install`, npm clones the default branch's current HEAD and runs any lifecycle scripts the fetched repository declares, executing that code on the installer's machine with no integrity check. Whoever controls the `tenka-san/libsignal-node` repository can change the code at any time, and every installer of this package will run whatever is at HEAD at that moment. The upstream `@whiskeysockets/baileys` package resolves `libsignal` from the npm registry at a pinned version; substituting a mutable third-party git reference in this fork replaces a registry-integrity-checked dependency with an unpinned attacker-controllable code source.","ecosystems":["npm"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":null,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":null,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":null,"nuclei":null,"refs":[],"tier":null},"has_fix":false,"headline":"Malicious code in @rennnpm/baileys (npm)","id":"MAL-2026-17374","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"malicious","links":{"ecosystem":"npm","product":null,"products":[],"type":null,"year":"2026"},"n_packages":1,"n_references":null,"packages":[{"ecosystem":"npm","fixed":[],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"@rennnpm/baileys","purl":"pkg:npm/%40rennnpm/baileys","source":"MAL-2026-17374"}],"products":null,"published":"2026-10-29","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"Apache-2.0","name":"OpenSSF Malicious Packages","prefix":"MAL"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":null,"updated":null,"vendors":null},"summary":null,"url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17374/"}