MAL-2026-3309 Malicious code in google-cloud-secret-manager-config-poc (npm)

Malicious npm package published by the microsop threat actor as part of a dependency-confusion campaign that impersonates internal tooling at Microsoft, Google Cloud, and PayPal using inflated semver values (e.g. 99.9.x, 100.1.x) to win npm resolution against private internal packages. All packages in the campaign falsely advertise themselves as "Security Research PoC" and execute on preinstall via node index.js, exfiltrating to disposable webhook.site endpoints.

This package targets Google-Cloud-flavored internal naming and performs SSH key validation/fingerprinting on the build host. On install it checks for /root/.ssh/id_rsa, runs ssh-keygen -l -f to extract the key fingerprint and ssh-keygen -y -f to derive the public key, then POSTs {hostname, fingerprint, public_key, key_exists} to https://webhook.site/813b99f6-c86c-4a1f-9318-518a3c153992 tagged status: KEY_VALIDATION_RESULT. The captured fingerprint and public key let the operator correlate the install host against authorized-keys lists for downstream lateral movement.

The package google-cloud-secret-manager-config-poc was found to contain malicious code.

Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer. The package should be removed, but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity, there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'google-cloud-secret-manager-config-poc' @ 99.9.14 (npm) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

• The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.