MAL-2026-5906 Malicious code in chai-plugin-kit (npm)

Malicious package Published
Package
chai-plugin-kit
Registry
npm

What is MAL-2026-5906?

MAL-2026-5906 is a malicious package in chai-plugin-kit, published on 16 Jun 2026.

Official description

Package republishes the chai source tree under the confusable name chai-plugin-kit. The package's main entry (index.js) spawns a detached, stdio-silenced node subprocess running lib/chai/utils/addAssertion.js on every require('chai-plugin-kit'). That file is heavily obfuscated with obfuscator.io transforms (rotated 31-entry string array _0x4a30, custom base64 decoder _0x495d, hex-named identifiers, control-flow flattening) hiding an https GET to an attacker-controlled URL whose response body is passed to new Function('require', body) and immediately invoked with the real require — granting attacker-controlled JavaScript full Node API access (filesystem, network, child_process, env). The detached + unref + stdio:'ignore' pattern is deliberate evasion to hide the child process from the consuming developer. A legitimate chai plugin has no reason to fetch and eval remote code.

What should I do about MAL-2026-5906?

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

Sources

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