MAL-2026-18184 Malicious code in formatting-subtitles (npm)

package.json declares preinstall: sh./prepare.js && exit 0. prepare.js is shaped like JavaScript (ending with console.log('hello world')) but is executed by /bin/sh, which does not treat /**... */ as a comment. Inside that block, sh evaluates two $(...) command substitutions: one issues a GET to the hardcoded collector https://webhook.site/9e8c8742-3102-4716-aa8b-e150e9e84fe7/stats_1, and the other downloads https://api.github.com/gists/da04f14c93acbe9a7aef827be0a2e91c, extracts a file via jq, writes it to disk as x, and runs it with sh x. On npm install, the installer host fetches and executes arbitrary, unpinned, attacker-controlled content from a mutable GitHub Gist, and the webhook.site beacon discloses the install (and curl-visible metadata such as public IP and user-agent) to the attacker. The JS-comment-wrapping of the shell payload is a deliberate cover story so prepare.js reads as a trivial hello-world when viewed as JavaScript.