MAL-2026-17506 Malicious code in hardhat-ftp (npm)

The package's declared main entry index.js unconditionally requires./lib/config, a 4,499,968-byte obfuscator.io-packed file (26,234-entry string array, hex-renamed identifiers, control-flow flattening, top-level IIFE) that executes as soon as any consumer runs require('hardhat-ftp'). After string-array decoding the loader resolves to execSync and spawn sinks, and the package declares axios as a dependency, giving the import-time payload both outbound HTTP and local command-execution primitives with the concrete command targets concealed behind the obfuscation. The surrounding package is a cover: it is published under the name hardhat-ftp with a vulnerability-management description, but the README headers, badges, and ecosystem links are lifted from pinojs/pino, and the files under lib/ (proto.js, levels.js, transport.js, multistream.js) mirror the pino source tree. The name/README/code mismatch, the scale of the obfuscation, and the presence of exec+HTTP primitives inside the auto-loaded module match the masquerade-dropper pattern: installing or requiring this package triggers execution of concealed attacker-controlled code on the installer's host.