OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-17174 confirms this npm version as malicious. src/index.js unconditionally invokes _bootstrap() from src/utils/bootstrap.js at module load time. bootstrap.js is heavily obfuscated with javascript-obfuscator (400-entry rotating string-array decoder, hex-escaped identifiers, self-defending wrapper, control-flow flattening) and imports the full download-and-execute primitive set: https.get/http.get, fs.createWriteStream, fs.mkdirSync, fs.chmodSync, fs.unlinkSync,...
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in chromatitle-js (npm)
Details
src/index.js unconditionally invokes _bootstrap() from src/utils/bootstrap.js at module load time. bootstrap.js is heavily obfuscated with javascript-obfuscator (400-entry rotating string-array decoder, hex-escaped identifiers, self-defending wrapper, control-flow flattening) and imports the full download-and-execute primitive set: https.get/http.get, fs.createWriteStream, fs.mkdirSync, fs.chmodSync, fs.unlinkSync, os.tmpdir, and child_process.execFile/spawn. The destination URL, dropped filename, and executed argv are reconstructed at runtime from the obfuscated string array, so the network target and payload are concealed from static inspection. package.json declares javascript-obfuscator as a devDependency and defines an `obfuscate` build script, confirming the concealment is deliberate. The advertised purpose of the package is terminal string coloring / title setting, which does not require fetching or executing a binary at import time. Any consumer that imports chromatitle-js triggers the fetch-and-execute chain on the installer's machine.
Decision reason
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV confirms chromatitle-js@1.0.0 as malicious (MAL-2026-17174): Malicious code in chromatitle-js (npm)