MAL-2026-4244

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Import Source

https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin/MAL-2026-4244.json

JSON Data

https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-4244

Aliases

GHSA-w4rg-p3x5-fv42

Published

2026-05-20T00:37:26Z

Modified

2026-05-26T06:02:35.818156066Z

Summary

Malicious code in hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin (npm)

Details

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

Source: amazon-inspector (c21e0ec3571fccc81c8e047835e84f75b6f0d95e2e4ee7e3d11537b99eab8115)

Package impersonates the Hardhat plugin ecosystem (real Hardhat plugins are published under @nomicfoundation/*; the referenced github.com/hardhat/... repo is not owned by the Hardhat org). The package's index.js is a no-op stub that only requires hardhat and provides no real plugin functionality. At install time, package.json declares a postinstall hook that runs an inline node -e invoking https.get against rqnyz-2605-7280-7--2000-c51.run.pinggy-free.link/npm/-/binary/telemetry — an anonymous Pinggy reverse-tunnel hostname not affiliated with any publisher. Errors are swallowed via try/catch to keep the install silent. The beacon leaks installer source IP, install timing, and User-Agent to the tunnel operator and serves as a reachability/recon callback for follow-up targeting. Combined with placeholder author metadata (Web3 Developer Tools <dev@hardhat-tools.dev>) and the typosquat name, this is an attacker-shell package, not a real Hardhat plugin.

Source: ghsa-malware (0659fba11bafbc32d157d3904df5d8c29e0f135def7730f8fe5575f8daba0316)

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": [
        {
            "source": "ghsa-malware",
            "ranges": [
                {
                    "type": "SEMVER",
                    "events": [
                        {
                            "introduced": "0"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "sha256": "0659fba11bafbc32d157d3904df5d8c29e0f135def7730f8fe5575f8daba0316",
            "modified_time": "2026-05-22T02:42:59Z",
            "import_time": "2026-05-22T03:24:54.646654264Z",
            "id": "GHSA-w4rg-p3x5-fv42"
        },
        {
            "source": "amazon-inspector",
            "sha256": "c21e0ec3571fccc81c8e047835e84f75b6f0d95e2e4ee7e3d11537b99eab8115",
            "modified_time": "2026-05-20T00:37:26Z",
            "id": "IN-MAL-2026-003321",
            "versions": [
                "1.7.86"
            ],
            "import_time": "2026-05-26T05:50:25.283231546Z"
        }
    ]
}

References

Credits

- Amazon Inspector - FINDER
- - actran@amazon.com

Affected packages

npm / hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin

Package

Name: hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin; View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl: pkg:npm/hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin

Affected ranges

Type: SEMVER
Events: Introduced

0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Affected versions

1.*

1.7.86

Database specific

source

"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin/MAL-2026-4244.json"

indicators

{
    "package_integrity": [
        {
            "filename": "hardhat-gas-profiler-plugin-1.7.86.tgz",
            "hashes": {
                "sha1": "3cd613990b8c4300face6bec7c3731559c0bda44",
                "sha512_sri": "sha512-mhECCM++Y5ueYM0c4ptCstdJYQt3bVXfljClhEWl8OMbFQUpiNLWag9bdP1Oej5OS9E4OOgObHgOBnxM5uZJxA=="
            }
        }
    ],
    "evidence_files": [
        {
            "path": "package.json",
            "tlsh": "3cf002a1d93dcc732bd47fa545ae2185f5128e0f1d20b81a3387810ed75f26704fe15a",
            "sha256": "8b70cd0e4bdcf238f2dc07da0762871b195fecab5181c30d558dd9b4e9cdca2a"
        }
    ]
}

cwes

[
    {
        "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",
        "cweId": "CWE-506"
    }
]