OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-15917 confirms this npm version as malicious. @crysnovax/baileys is a renamed fork of the Baileys WhatsApp Web library. On every successful connection (connection.update with connection === 'open', wired in lib/Socket/socket.js) it silently makes the user's own authenticated WhatsApp account follow two channels controlled by the publisher, 120363402922206865@newsletter and 120363423670814885@newsletter, through the xwa2_newsletter_join_v2 FOLLOW query, with no...
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in @crysnovax/baileys (npm)
Details
@crysnovax/baileys is a renamed fork of the Baileys WhatsApp Web library. On every successful connection (connection.update with connection === 'open', wired in lib/Socket/socket.js) it silently makes the user's own authenticated WhatsApp account follow two channels controlled by the publisher, 120363402922206865@newsletter and 120363423670814885@newsletter, through the xwa2_newsletter_join_v2 FOLLOW query, with no opt-out and a creds.additionalData.crysnovaxFollowed once-flag. From 2.7.10 the module that performs the follow (lib/Utils/channel-policy.js) is the only file in the package run through javascript-obfuscator (declared as a devDependency with an 'obfuscate' npm script); pkgwarden re-implemented the rotated string-table decoder to recover the channel ids without executing the code. Separately, from 2.7.6, lib/Utils/integrity.js POSTs the package name and version plus a SHA-256 machine fingerprint to https://bailey.crysnovax.link/api/v1/verify on every connect (a publisher-controlled kill switch that fails open), and the update check is repointed to web.crysnovax.link. Earlier versions (1.0.3 through 2.7.5) carry the same forced follow in plaintext with a comment calling it a 'condition of use'; they are not listed here. The listed versions combine the concealed follow with the fingerprint phone-home. Reachability was confirmed by following the socket chain from makeWASocket. No credential or session-key theft was observed. All listed versions were fetched from the npm registry and read by hand on 2026-09-03; the current latest tag (2.8.3) is armed. Related family: MAL-2026-13932 and MAL-2026-15819 (Baileys-fork newsletter auto-follow campaign).