MAL-2026-18072 Malicious code in animatecss-tailwind-plugin (npm)

animatecss-tailwind-plugin (2.0.6) is a Tailwind CSS plugin from the fake job interview campaign behind MAL-2026-17665 and MAL-2026-17666: the same Animate.css integration template, README and description, published by hannahgibbs on 2026-09-28. src/motion.js:5 requires the private scoped package @aaron205whitmore/postcss-animate-utils, which is not readable on the public registry and resolves only with the npm token committed in the lure repository's web/.npmrc, so the code it delivers runs when tailwind.config.js loads the plugin and the dev server starts. The published tarball contains no install scripts and no network code; the payload lives in the private dependency, which was not retrieved. Twenty-six such packages under seventeen accounts were published between 2026-07-28 and 2026-10-09.

The package is a Tailwind CSS plugin that exposes Animate.css animations as Tailwind utilities. No lifecycle scripts, install-time network fetches, credential reads, or exfiltration behaviors were observed. No hardcoded attacker-controlled endpoints, obfuscation, or dynamic code execution were present in the shipped files.