MAL-2026-4335 Malicious code in webservices.rest (npm)

Package name webservices.rest impersonates the OpenMRS REST API naming convention and is published at version 99.1.0 — the canonical dependency-confusion version-bump pattern designed to outrank an internal/private package of the same name in mixed registry resolution. The package's only functional behavior is to load a separate, caret-pinned dependency webservices.rest-utils@^1.0.5: package.json declares "postinstall": "node index.js", and index.js line 2 calls require('webservices.rest-utils') wrapped in an empty try/catch that suppresses any errors. This means npm install webservices.rest silently fetches and executes whatever code webservices.rest-utils contains, both at install (via postinstall) and at import. Additional integrity-of-publication red flags: README claims an 'OpenMRS Community Contributor' affiliation, but the LICENSE file copyright is held by 'dov-nods-autho' and the declared license disagrees between package.json (Apache-2.0) and the LICENSE file (MIT). The package itself contains no other functionality — it is a thin loader stub whose sole supply-chain effect is to drag the caret-pinned utility package into the installer's dependency tree and execute it.

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.