MAL-2026-4723 Malicious code in weavedb-sdk (npm)

package.json declares "preinstall": "./tools/setup", where tools/setup is a 976KB stripped Linux x86-64 ELF binary (sha256 36abd242ddaa27f0160c539377a0e92cf781c1695137850acc87e3892b436d36) shipped directly in the tarball. The package self-describes as a JavaScript SDK for an Arweave-backed database; it has no native component, no binding.gyp, no C/C++/Rust source, and no build system that would justify a precompiled binary. The binary is not fetched from a publisher CDN, not version-pinned, and not hash-verified — it simply runs unconditionally with the installer's privileges on every npm install. Strings extracted from the binary include a PuTTY private-key header (BEGINPRIV...KEYPuTTY-), RSA_PKCS1_, Ed25519, cookie, Authorization, HTTP/1.1, POST, XMLH (XMLHttpRequest), USERPROFILE, HOME, /proc, id_, ssh, and a second embedded ELF header at offset ~270 (UPX-packed loader pattern). This fingerprint set — SSH/PuTTY private-key parsing primitives + browser cookie/Authorization-header scraping + HTTP POST exfil scaffolding + home-directory and /proc traversal — is the canonical shape of a credential and SSH-key stealer. Installing this package on Linux compromises stored SSH/PuTTY keys, browser session cookies, and any credentials reachable from the user's home directory and environment.

This package was compromised as part of the IronWorm campaign. This campaign executes a malicious binary payload during installation via a preinstall hook. The payload is a Rust-built infostealer that targets developer environments, scanning for and harvesting credentials related to cloud providers, object storage, databases, source-control, package registries, and AI developer tools. It also targets cryptocurrency wallets, specifically injecting a malicious JavaScript hook into the Exodus desktop wallet to capture passwords and recovery phrases. Furthermore, the malware exhibits worm-like behavior by stealing GitHub and NPM credentials to push malicious updates to the victim's repositories and publish trojanized packages, and it uses an eBPF-based kernel rootkit to hide its processes and network connections on Linux systems.