OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-4230 confirms this npm version as malicious. On require(), index.js opens TCP connections to the cloud link-local metadata address 169.254.169.254 across ports 80, 443, 8080, 3000, 5432, and 6379, writing an HTTP probe on each successful connection...
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in cryptoco-auth (npm)
Details
On require(), index.js opens TCP connections to the cloud link-local metadata address 169.254.169.254 across ports 80, 443, 8080, 3000, 5432, and 6379, writing an HTTP probe on each successful connection. The package advertises itself as a crypto authentication library but contains no authentication code — its only runtime behavior is reconnaissance against the AWS/cloud Instance Metadata Service, a well-known precursor to IMDS credential theft on cloud VMs. The package manifest is minimal (no description, author, or repository), and the IP literal is annotated with an Indonesian-language comment explicitly identifying it as the AWS Metadata IP. The lure-style name combined with reconnaissance behavior and absent legitimate functionality is consistent with a malicious package targeting cloud-hosted installers.
## Source: ossf-package-analysis (224727792d7795e1dff1348ad30dad0de77689bf284ac571b7aee280b49b5774) The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'cryptoco-auth' @ 1.0.6 (npm) as malicious.
It is considered malicious because:
- The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.
Decision reason
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV confirms cryptoco-auth@1.0.7 as malicious (MAL-2026-4230): Malicious code in cryptoco-auth (npm)