registry / Persistence / @indigoai-us/hq-cli / 5.345.76

@indigoai-us/hq-cli@5.345.76

HQ by Indigo management CLI — modules and cloud sync

AI Security Review

scanned 12d ago · by lpm-firewall-ai

Source inspection confirms automatic user-service installation through the postinstall hook, which presents a concrete persistence risk. The behavior is limited to this package's own mesh daemon, so the evidence supports a warning rather than a malicious block.

Static reason

One or more suspicious static signals were detected.; previous stored version diff introduced dangerous source

Trigger

Installing the npm package runs its postinstall hook.

Impact

This can create a user-level background service without a separate explicit daemon-install command.

Mechanism

The hook starts the bundled CLI with the daemon install and if-stale options; the stale check can pass with no prior daemon version record, leading to service installation.

AI rationale

Evidence

package.jsonscripts/mesh-daemon-if-stale.mjsdist/commands/mesh.jsdist/lib/mesh/live/daemon/install.js

Decision evidence

public snapshot

AI called this Suspicious at 89.0% confidence as Dangerous Capability with medium false-positive risk.

Evidence for warning

The package postinstall invokes a bundled helper that runs the CLI's daemon installer with an if-stale option.
The stale check treats a missing daemon version record as needing installation; on macOS the installer writes a user LaunchAgent.
The agent integration target excerpts show project session state, settings reads, credential-presence checks, policy directory scans, and path filters; those excerpts do not establish an independent attack.
The auto-installed service is package-owned and limited to the HQ mesh daemon.

Evidence against

No inspected source showed credential collection or sending, unrelated agent control-surface mutation, or a remote payload execution chain.
The remaining inspected integration excerpts concern state/settings handling and local policy or credential-presence checks.

Behavioral surface

Source

ChildProcessCryptoDynamicRequireEnvironmentVarsFilesystemNetworkShell

Source & flagged code

17 flagged

package.jsonView file

Lines 23-63json

23 "contracts",

24 "scripts/mesh-daemon-if-stale.mjs"

25 ],

26 "scripts": {

27 "build": "node scripts/generate-dsn.mjs && node scripts/build-flag-registry-worker.mjs && tsc && node scripts/generate-command-catalog.mjs --check && node scripts/copy-schemas.mjs && node scripts/chmod-bins.mjs && node scripts/bundle-sync-runner.mjs",

28 "prepublishOnly": "npm run build",

29 "pretypecheck": "node scripts/generate-dsn.mjs && node scripts/build-flag-registry-worker.mjs",

30 "typecheck": "tsc --noEmit && tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.typetest.json",

31 "gen:scan-golden": "node scripts/generate-scan-packages-table.mjs > src/utils/__fixtures__/scan-packages.generated-block.sh",

32 "gen:command-catalog": "tsc && node scripts/generate-command-catalog.mjs",

33 "lint": "eslint .",

34 "pretest": "node scripts/generate-dsn.mjs && node scripts/build-flag-registry-worker.mjs",

35 "test": "vitest run",

36 "gen:hq-mcp-tools": "node scripts/generate-hq-mcp-tools.mjs",

37 "test:db": "vitest run src/lib/db test/commands/db.test.ts test/commands/db-tenant-isolation.test.ts",

38 "test:e2e": "vitest run --config vitest.e2e.config.ts",

39 "coverage": "vitest run --coverage --coverage.reporter=text-summary --coverage.reporter=json-summary",

40 "check:lanes-module-cycles": "node scripts/check-lanes-module-cycles.mjs",

41 "vitest": "vitest",

42 "clean": "rm -rf dist",

43 "postinstall": "node scripts/mesh-daemon-if-stale.mjs || true",

High

Install Time Lifecycle Scripts

Package defines install-time lifecycle scripts.

package.jsonView on unpkg · L43

Medium

Ambiguous Install Lifecycle Script

Install-time lifecycle script is not statically allowlisted and needs review.

package.jsonView on unpkg · L43

44 "prepare": "husky || true",

45 "check:no-hermes": "bash scripts/check-no-hermes.sh"

46 },

47 "dependencies": {

48 "@aws-sdk/client-iot-data-plane": "^3.1096.0",

49 "@aws-sdk/client-s3": "^3.1049.0",

50 "@aws-sdk/dsql-signer": "^3.1146.0",

51 "@indigoai-us/hq-cloud": "~6.18.54",

52 "@indigoai-us/hq-flags-client": "^0.1.2",

53 "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk": "1.29.0",

54 "@sentry/node": "^10.49.0",

55 "@tobilu/qmd": "2.5.3",

56 "ajv": "^8.20.0",

57 "better-sqlite3": "^12.11.1",

58 "chalk": "^5.3.0",

59 "commander": "^12.1.0",

60 "js-yaml": "^4.1.0",

61 "mqtt": "5.15.2",

62 "open": "^10.1.0",

63 "pg": "^8.23.1",

dist/startup-registration.jsView file

Lines 1-38javascript

1/**

2 * The command-registration recovery seam for the "install tree torn out from

3 * under a starting `hq`" condition (Sentry HQ-CLI-1G/1H/1J/1K).

4 *

5 * `runCli` registers commands as its last step before `program.parseAsync()` —

6 * the lazy command import or `import("./register-all.js")` and everything those

7 * pull in. That is the ONE place a module-resolution failure is provably safe to

8 * recover from: it is inside hq-cli's own graph, it runs before `parseAsync` and

9 * before the preAction hook, so no command action, telemetry, or stdin read has

dist/utils/staged-install.jsView file

Lines 316-346javascript

316 if (result.status !== 0)

317 return null;

318 const lines = (result.stdout ?? "").trim().

dist/utils/update-command-supervisor.cjsView file

Lines 1-22javascript

1"use strict";

3const { spawn: nativeSpawn } = require("node:child_process");

4const fs = require("node:fs");

dist/lib/daemon/sync-runner.jsView file

Lines 1-22javascript

1/** Local status and resource controls shared by the daemon and its sync runner. */

2import * as crypto from "node:crypto";

3import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process";

4import * as fs

dist/lib/mesh/live/daemon/install.jsView file

Lines 1-27javascript

1/**

2 * User-level service install for hq mesh daemon.

3 *

4 * - macOS: LaunchAgent ai.getindigo.hq-mesh-daemon

5 * - Linux: systemd user unit hq-mesh-daemon.service

6 * (documented fallback: root-owned unit running as ec2-user)

7 * - Windows: per-user Scheduled Task ai.getindigo.hq-mesh-daemon registered

8 * from a rendered task XML via schtasks.exe (no native dependencies)

9 *

10 * The unit embeds the hq binary resolved at install time. Logs go to

dist/commands/rescue.js#virtual:normalized:round1View file

1import { spawnSync } from "child_process"; L2: import * as fs from "fs"; ... L11: /** L12: * Resolve the source repo + ref from the user"s flags. Pure + exported for\n * tests. `latestTag` is the resolved latest release tag (prod only); ignored\n * for staging and when a... L13: if (!ref) {

High

Same File Env Network Execution

A single source file combines environment access, network access, and code or shell execution; review context before blocking.

dist/commands/rescue.js#virtual:normalized:round1View on unpkg · L1

High

Command Output Exfiltration

Source combines command execution, command-output handling, and outbound requests; review data flow before blocking.

dist/commands/rescue.js#virtual:normalized:round1View on unpkg · L1

dist/lib/lanes/machine-identity.jsView file

11*/ L12: import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process"; L13: import * as os from "node:os"; L14: export const IMDS_HOST = "169.254.169.254"; L15: export const IMDS_TOKEN_URL = `http://${IMDS_HOST}/latest/api/token`; L16: export const IMDS_INSTANCE_ID_URL = `http://${IMDS_HOST}/latest/meta-data/instance-id`; ... L30: return null; L31: const body = (result.stdout ?? "").trim(); L32: return body.length > 0 ? body : null; ... L34: catch (err) { L35: process.stderr.write(`hq lanes: IMDS request failed for ${url}: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)}\n`); L36: return null;

High

Cloud Metadata Access

Source reaches cloud instance metadata or link-local credential endpoints.

dist/lib/lanes/machine-identity.jsView on unpkg · L11

assets/lanes-hooks/hq-lanes-drain.shView file

•path = assets/lanes-hooks/hq-lanes-drain.sh kind = build_helper sizeBytes = 620 magicHex = [redacted]

Medium

Ships Build Helper

Package ships non-JavaScript build or shell helper files.

assets/lanes-hooks/hq-lanes-drain.shView on unpkg

assets/scaffold/.claude/hooks/validate-policy-frontmatter.shView file

•path = assets/scaffold/.claude/hooks/validate-policy-frontmatter.sh kind = payload_in_excluded_dir sizeBytes = 21475 magicHex = [redacted]

High

Payload In Excluded Dir

Package hides binary, compressed, or executable-looking payloads in test/fixture/hidden paths.

assets/scaffold/.claude/hooks/validate-policy-frontmatter.shView on unpkg

dist/hq-cloud-sync-runner/bin/sync-runner.jsView file

•path = dist/hq-cloud-sync-runner/bin/sync-runner.js kind = oversized_source_file sizeBytes = 6314708 magicHex = [redacted]

Medium

Oversized Source File

Package contains source files above the normal full-analysis size ceiling.

dist/hq-cloud-sync-runner/bin/sync-runner.jsView on unpkg

•path = dist/hq-cloud-sync-runner/bin/sync-runner.js kind = oversized_cli_entrypoint sizeBytes = 6314708 magicHex = [redacted]

Medium

Oversized Cli Entrypoint

Package contains an oversized executable-looking CLI entrypoint.

dist/hq-cloud-sync-runner/bin/sync-runner.jsView on unpkg

dist/commands/agent-enroll.js#virtual:normalized:round1View file

•stage = ast_semantic_analysis; reason = ast_parse_error; limitedFiles = 43

High

Semantic Analysis Limited

A bounded semantic-analysis stage reached its safety limit; remaining detectors completed, but this package requires AI review.

dist/commands/agent-enroll.js#virtual:normalized:round1View on unpkg

dist/lib/lanes/monitor.jsView file

•matchType = previous_version_dangerous_delta matchedPackage = @indigoai-us/hq-cli@5.345.75 matchedIdentity = npm:QGluZGlnb2FpLXVzL2hxLWNsaQ:5.345.75 similarity = 0.992 summary = stored previous version shares package body but lacks this dangerous source file

Critical

Previous Version Dangerous Delta

This package version adds a dangerous source file absent from the previous stored version; route for source-aware review.

dist/lib/lanes/monitor.jsView on unpkg

Source & flagged code

17 flagged · loading source

package.jsonView file

•scripts.postinstall = node scripts/mesh-daemon-if-stale.mjs || true

High

Install Time Lifecycle Scripts

Package defines install-time lifecycle scripts.

package.jsonView on unpkg

•scripts.postinstall = node scripts/mesh-daemon-if-stale.mjs || true

Medium

Ambiguous Install Lifecycle Script

Install-time lifecycle script is not statically allowlisted and needs review.

package.jsonView on unpkg

dist/startup-registration.jsView file

18*/ L19: import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process"; L20: import { stringDerivedPackageRoot } from "./utils/hq-roots.js";

High

Child Process

Package source references child process execution.

dist/startup-registration.jsView on unpkg · L18

Findings

1 Critical9 High9 Medium6 Low

CriticalPrevious Version Dangerous Deltadist/lib/lanes/monitor.js

HighInstall Time Lifecycle Scriptspackage.json

HighChild Processdist/startup-registration.js

HighShelldist/utils/staged-install.js

HighSame File Env Network Executiondist/commands/rescue.js#virtual:normalized:round1

HighCommand Output Exfiltrationdist/commands/rescue.js#virtual:normalized:round1

HighCloud Metadata Accessdist/lib/lanes/machine-identity.js

HighTrigger Reachable Persistencedist/lib/mesh/live/daemon/install.js

HighPayload In Excluded Dirassets/scaffold/.claude/hooks/validate-policy-frontmatter.sh

HighSemantic Analysis Limiteddist/commands/agent-enroll.js#virtual:normalized:round1

Affected versions and remediation

This report applies to @indigoai-us/hq-cli@5.345.76.

See all versions of @indigoai-us/hq-cli for other recorded verdicts.

Review the evidence and your use of @indigoai-us/hq-cli@5.345.76 before allowing it. Restrict the permissions described in this report.
Choose an independently verified alternative or release. This report does not establish that other versions are safe.

Evidence last updated: 2026-10-10 20:21:48.244Z (UTC).

Think this verdict is wrong? Dispute it on GitHub or read how reports are produced.

AI Security Review

Decision evidence

Source & flagged code

Source & flagged code

Findings

Affected versions and remediation

Related packages

More from @indigoai-us

Behavioral surface

Related packages

More from @indigoai-us

Source & flagged code