MAL-2026-14316

See a problem?
Import Source
https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/expect-dotenv/MAL-2026-14316.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-14316
Aliases
  • GHSA-h7q6-7chv-cgh2
Published
2026-08-20T03:32:44Z
Modified
2026-09-14T20:30:05Z
Summary
Malicious code in expect-dotenv (npm)
Details

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

Source: amazon-inspector (ffc39d28e4d33afe723182c097769f087bf528732e5468b1511bf2bff41db01e)

The package's main entry runs a worker that performs an HTTPS GET to https://realase-0626.vercel.app/api/v1 and passes the response's parser string into vm.runInContext, then invokes the resulting function with Node's require — granting the remote endpoint full code-execution in the consumer's Node process. The destination URL is concealed as a hex byte array in constants.js (pluginIDs) and reassembled at runtime via String.fromCharCode, hiding the non-publisher C2 domain from casual inspection. The worker's vm context receives require, so the sandbox is trivially escapable and the fetched code runs with full filesystem, network, and process privileges. This behavior fires on require('expect-dotenv') followed by .config() or .get() — the package's primary documented API — masquerading as a dotenv-style configuration loader.

Source: ghsa-malware (3902298c6bf94b97a0e9eb6de4e59555e036d923501e138f6420ea0320290aee)

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.

Database specific 
{
    "malicious-packages-origins":  [
        {
            "id":  "IN-MAL-2026-018432",
            "import_time":  "2026-08-20T03:49:50.659658261Z",
            "modified_time":  "2026-08-20T03:32:44Z",
            "sha256":  "ffc39d28e4d33afe723182c097769f087bf528732e5468b1511bf2bff41db01e",
            "source":  "amazon-inspector",
            "versions":  [
                "7.2.1"
            ]
        },
        {
            "id":  "GHSA-h7q6-7chv-cgh2",
            "import_time":  "2026-09-14T20:24:03.957963143Z",
            "modified_time":  "2026-09-14T15:15:04Z",
            "ranges":  [
                {
                    "events":  [
                        {
                            "introduced":  "0"
                        }
                    ],
                    "type":  "SEMVER"
                }
            ],
            "sha256":  "3902298c6bf94b97a0e9eb6de4e59555e036d923501e138f6420ea0320290aee",
            "source":  "ghsa-malware"
        }
    ]
}
References
Credits

Affected packages

npm / expect-dotenv

Package

Name
expect-dotenv
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:npm/expect-dotenv

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
0 Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Affected versions

7.*
7.2.1

Database specific

cwes 
[
    {
        "cweId":  "CWE-506",
        "description":  "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.",
        "name":  "Embedded Malicious Code"
    },
    {
        "cweId":  "CWE-506",
        "description":  "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.",
        "name":  "Embedded Malicious Code"
    }
]
indicators 
{
    "evidence_files":  [
        {
            "path":  "lib/workers/runWorker.js",
            "sha256":  "85099f550de29647787b3037a42c1834efcbc38b067cdd0677f8e9bb6c0d8079",
            "tlsh":  "11210282645d652a1971bbe895078226d14ba1737200c651b62cd7e43ff31b0b153fdc"
        },
        {
            "path":  "lib/workers/constants.js",
            "sha256":  "d063c195bd63b4eb9c87da3f3badc4d53667aac30ca96460addccfe17ac08070",
            "tlsh":  "69e0ecde636e258f08e72f7cd280549a9bcd11906361c4cbb9e88c2de4da8548051969"
        },
        {
            "path":  "lib/workers/plugin.worker.js",
            "sha256":  "6f515e418c9ac1f7530e376b91f57a1fe9cb66bd15775d3e19accba8d5e5922b",
            "tlsh":  "7d2198d655a820686a75bbe19f377005e316e3732004d39a7abc43a02ff24095423f9c"
        }
    ],
    "package_integrity":  [
        {
            "filename":  "expect-dotenv-7.2.1.tgz",
            "hashes":  {
                "sha1":  "682a8eb7d4af9cb67e079e46bb5362fc543545e2",
                "sha512_sri":  "sha512-UeX3EtD+wZ55AKERnfhc6c05z0OFm5+oxC+ypvw5ZSm8jDqOq3RQ98wlr9fa2b+PkC7obusvdv/LRI+wU8PWBA=="
            }
        }
    ]
}
source 
"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/expect-dotenv/MAL-2026-14316.json"