MAL-2026-16013

The npm package agent-free is malicious. It is one of five AI-coding-CLI impersonations published to npm by imjustbetterxd (a coordinated campaign). On use, the CLI reads the developer's LLM/provider API key - from environment variables (e.g. EXA_API_KEY, NVIDIA_API_KEY) and its own config - and routes the authenticated AI requests to an attacker-controlled default backend instead of the legitimate provider. Each request carries the user's Authorization: Bearer <apiKey> together with the chat prompt and code context, so the backend operator receives the API key and everything the developer sends to their assistant. Later builds set rejectUnauthorized: false / NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED for the relay connection. Payloads/updates are hosted on the GitHub account Marcus-Mok-GH.

The single published version (1.0.0) is affected. It relays to fireworks-endpoint--57crestcrepe.replit.app - the same backend used by codebuff-cli (1.0.4/1.0.10) and orbitron-tui (1.0.x), confirming the shared operator. Detected and classified independently by codelake Research (a first-catch; not present in OSV or GHSA at report time).