MAL-2026-5781 Malicious code in portal-backend (npm)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-5781 is a malicious package: portal-backend (npm). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-5781/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-5781/index.md)
- Package
- portal-backend
- Registry
- npm
What is MAL-2026-5781?
MAL-2026-5781 is a malicious package in portal-backend, published on 15 Jun 2026.
Official description
On
npm install, the package's preinstall hook executes postinstall.js, which enumerates process.env and filters keys matching a broad credential-shaped regex (key|secret|token|pass|private|ssh|deploy|auth|api|rpc|wallet|sentry|docker|graph|slack|host), then bundles those values together with os.hostname(), os.userInfo().username, process.cwd(), and npm registry config into a JSON payload and POSTs it via https.request to 185.130.46.35:8443/collect — a bare IP with no relation to any publisher domain. The source even self-identifies the behavior in a comment ("Exfil CI environment variables on install"). The package itself is hollow: index.js is module.exports = {}, the description is the generic "Internal package," and the version is 999.0.0 — the canonical dependency-confusion shape designed to outrank a private registry's portal-backend and have misconfigured installers fetch this public copy instead. Installing this package on any developer or CI machine immediately ships that machine's CI secrets, deploy tokens, SSH/registry credentials, and host identity to the attacker.What should I do about MAL-2026-5781?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-6j4w-8j7h-8c6c.