MAL-2026-17524 Malicious code in tailwindcss-forms-styles (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-17524 is a malicious package: tailwindcss-forms-styles (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17524/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17524/index.md)
- Package
- tailwindcss-forms-styles
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-17524?
MAL-2026-17524 is a malicious package in tailwindcss-forms-styles, published on 4 Oct 2026.
Official description
The package name tailwindcss-forms-styles mimics the legitimate @tailwindcss/forms plugin, and its src/index.js copies that plugin's code verbatim as cover. Above the cover code, a top-level IIFE joins a ~140-element base64 string array, atob()-decodes it, and eval()s the result. The decoded loader queries public Ethereum RPC/Blockscout endpoints for the most recent transaction sent by hardcoded address 0xa322E5f3D311D3080e6f0121063e9aDC2490Ef1a, parses two IPv4 addresses out of the transaction recipient field, downloads an XOR-encoded JavaScript payload from staging URLs of the form http://<ip>:443/0x/cls and http://<ip>:443/0x/ls, and executes it via eval and a detached spawn('node', ['-e',…]) child process. Because the IIFE runs at module load, any consumer that performs require('tailwindcss-forms-styles') triggers remote code execution on the installer, with the command-and-control endpoint resolved dynamically from the blockchain so the C2 can be rotated without changing the package.
What should I do about MAL-2026-17524?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.