MAL-2026-4539 Malicious code in create-kachow (npm)

Malicious package Published
Package
create-kachow
Registry
npm

What is MAL-2026-4539?

MAL-2026-4539 is a malicious package in create-kachow, published on 20 May 2026.

Official description

bin/create-kachow.js declares a BUILTIN_KEYS object containing live API keys for four third-party AI providers (Gemini key starting AIzaSyByPyGWXRVsa0…, OpenRouter sk-or-v1-673e3b6d…, Mistral OiCiNtvBsogE…, DeepSeek sk-7ecd4ed8…). The key-resolution helpers (e.g. resolveGeminiKeys) fall back to these built-in keys whenever the corresponding env var is unset, so any installer running npx create-kachow obtains and uses live credentials against generativelanguage.googleapis.com, openrouter.ai, api.mistral.ai, and api.deepseek.com. Two installer-affecting harms follow: (1) the keys are extractable from the package by anyone who installs it and can be abused against the four third-party providers (credential redistribution); (2) the README advertises a 'deterministic template generator — no AI required' fallback when no keys are set, but the code instead silently routes the user-supplied app description (the appPrompt from ask("Describe your app:")) to those four providers under the author's account, where prompts may be logged. This contradicts documented behavior and makes the data flow non-consensual.

What should I do about MAL-2026-4539?

Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.

Sources

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