MAL-2026-14194

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Import Source
https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/system-performance-helper/MAL-2026-14194.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-14194
Published
2026-08-19T01:16:23Z
Modified
2026-08-19T01:45:11.378864990Z
Summary
Malicious code in system-performance-helper (npm)
Details

-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-

Source: amazon-inspector (f382b23398f0b2550e29a61c444b8dbd45796d20c938dead6ada9d967d82cabc)

Package advertises itself as a system performance monitoring helper, but its package.json declares a postinstall hook (node install.js) that opens a TCP socket and pipes a spawned OS shell (/bin/sh on Unix, cmd.exe on Windows) stdin/stdout/stderr through it, with auto-reconnect and a keep-alive interval — a canonical reverse-shell backdoor executed automatically on npm install. Bytes received from the remote peer are written directly into the shell, yielding full remote code execution on the installer's host. The destination is hardcoded as HOST="YOUR_PUBLIC_IP", PORT=4444, so as-published the connect() fails DNS resolution and no callback occurs; the payload itself is fully functional and any republish with the placeholder filled in weaponizes every install. The visible exports in index.js (getLoad, getTotalMemory wrapping os.loadavg/os.totalmem) are a cover story; install.js contains // Run silently and // Fail quietly comments around the socket-to-shell pipe, and the advertised monitoring behavior is not present in the postinstall payload.

Database specific 
{
    "malicious-packages-origins": [
        {
            "import_time": "2026-08-19T01:34:41.080497765Z",
            "source": "amazon-inspector",
            "modified_time": "2026-08-19T01:16:23Z",
            "sha256": "f382b23398f0b2550e29a61c444b8dbd45796d20c938dead6ada9d967d82cabc",
            "id": "IN-MAL-2026-018270",
            "versions": [
                "1.0.0"
            ]
        }
    ]
}
References
Credits

Affected packages

npm / system-performance-helper

Package

Name
system-performance-helper
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:npm/system-performance-helper

Affected ranges

Affected versions

1.*
1.0.0

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/system-performance-helper/MAL-2026-14194.json"
indicators 
{
    "evidence_files": [
        {
            "sha256": "cacd8299440a88e3cbfbdc173c5f7915eba17277fc7a987125317c5690d9b0d0",
            "tlsh": "720146c076b9907e17f30171a1238637107740063346d2d4666f43a44fc2fd8978b6d7",
            "path": "install.js"
        },
        {
            "sha256": "73842e4487a7e0f36ea60d081de66265378476296792a125807df32a4ea1b81d",
            "path": "package.json",
            "tlsh": "2ad012118f00577334d876ea086e514766716f0ea2086c0c03df1148b28b9fa45bab2e"
        }
    ],
    "package_integrity": [
        {
            "filename": "system-performance-helper-1.0.0.tgz",
            "hashes": {
                "sha1": "d8bc3e3f365529f5c19dd1dea1fe5c8d5819cafb",
                "sha512_sri": "sha512-YQ+GzAIVdAsl2NpoUEMZx2T94QiWmrhQUav5DZXObxLkiNz+t5bTJbNw4eX48fK+H3BZOZcci3iTik5snICrow=="
            }
        }
    ]
}
cwes 
[
    {
        "name": "Embedded Malicious Code",
        "cweId": "CWE-506",
        "description": "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature."
    }
]