MAL-2026-4488 Malicious code in auth-basic-vault (npm)

On require('auth-basic-vault'), lib/writer.js attempts to require('authcascade') at module top level and, on failure, shells out via execSync to npm install authcascade --no-warnings --no-save --no-progress --loglevel silent and then requires '../../authcascade/pino.js'. The fetched package is unpinned (no version constraint), not declared in package.json dependencies, and executed automatically without consent. The same file builds an error string via a long String.fromCharCode chain to mask the failure path from static analysis, and defines a getMacAddress() helper that enumerates os.networkInterfaces() to collect external IPv4 MAC addresses — host fingerprinting scaffolding for the dynamically loaded payload. Package identity is inconsistent: package.json declares 'auth-basic-vault' with a Basic Authentication description and pino-style keywords, while README presents the package as 'fabric-grachics' with unrelated example code; the codebase is pino-derived. The package exists to host the dropper, not to provide its advertised functionality.

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.