MAL-2026-5580 Malicious code in webpack-cache-reset (npm)

On npm install, the package's postinstall hook runs loader.js, which hex-decodes the URL https://jsonkeeper.com/b/INN1F (an anonymous JSON paste host), fetches the response, writes the embedded manifest.session payload to a temporary.js file, and require()'s it inside a detached child node process — executing attacker-controlled JavaScript on the installer's machine. The URL is obfuscated via Buffer.from(<hex>, 'hex') and the temporary file is cleaned up after load to hide traces. The package additionally impersonates a webpack utility: README is titled 'webpack-cache-plugin' and instructs users to npm install webpack-cache-plugin --save-dev, while the published name is 'webpack-cache-reset' and the declared repository (github.com/webpack-tools/webpack-cache-plugin) does not exist. Installers are lured under a webpack-ecosystem name into running arbitrary remote code at install time.

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.