MAL-2026-6497 Malicious code in chai-as-synced (npm)

[email protected] impersonates the pino logger: it ships pino's README, LICENSE, docs/, index.d.ts and lib/ file layout (proto.js, levels.js, redaction.js, transport.js, worker.js, tools.js, multistream.js) with pino's keywords (fast,logger,stream,json), while package.json declares an unrelated name and author (Robert King <[email protected]>, bugs URL https://jsonspack.com/issues) and a boilerplate description unrelated to logging. index.js unconditionally executes require('./lib/config') at module top level. lib/config.js is not pino's config module; it is a ~4MB single-line obfuscator.io bundle (rotated string array of ~23,868 entries, hex-escaped identifiers, control-flow flattening, nested decoder functions) that auto-runs the moment any consumer imports the package. The package also declares axios ^1.10.0 as a runtime dependency although the visible wrapper (a no-op express middleware) has no HTTP use, positioning the hidden payload to perform network I/O at import. The combination of deceptive identity, hidden obfuscated payload, import-time auto-execution, and a bundled HTTP client is a covert-code-execution shape inconsistent with any legitimate logging library.

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.