registry  /  electron-orbit  /  1.0.16

electron-orbit@1.0.16

OSV Malicious Advisory

scanned 13d ago · by OpenSSF/OSV

OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-6723 confirms this npm version as malicious. On `require('electron-orbit')`, the module unconditionally fires an auto-prefetch pipeline in Node contexts (when no `document` is present) that opens a raw `node:net` socket to `electronorbit.blob.core.windows.net:443` and speaks a hand-written TLS 1.3 stack (custom ClientHello, HKDF key schedule, AES-128-GCM in aetherls.ts) rather than using `https`, bypassing standard TLS interception and static inspection...

Advisory
MAL-2026-6723
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in electron-orbit (npm)
Details
On `require('electron-orbit')`, the module unconditionally fires an auto-prefetch pipeline in Node contexts (when no `document` is present) that opens a raw `node:net` socket to `electronorbit.blob.core.windows.net:443` and speaks a hand-written TLS 1.3 stack (custom ClientHello, HKDF key schedule, AES-128-GCM in aetherls.ts) rather than using `https`, bypassing standard TLS interception and static inspection. Every network-related string — the Azure hostname components, `node:net`, `connect`, ALPN `http/1.1`, HTTP request line, marker filename, and `process.env` enumeration keys — is XOR-obfuscated through a helper `__s(key, arr)`. The postinstall script `install.js` writes an install marker to `os.tmpdir()/electron_orbit_install_marker.txt` containing `process.env` entries whose keys match `path` (PATH-family variables) plus `process.cwd()`, and separately stages `os.hostname()`, `os.userInfo().username`, `process.version`, platform and arch into a decoy file under `bin/formatters/` prefixed with a fake native-binary magic byte. On `require`, index.ts reads the tmpdir marker, XORs it with the string `electron-orbit`, hex-encodes it, and appends the result as a query-string suffix to the Azure blob URL, so the storage account's HTTP request logs capture the installer's PATH-family environment and working directory. Activation is gated: the destination host is only populated when the SHA-256 of `process.env.BuildType` is a substring of a hardcoded 64-hex constant (`0ceaa396…8295`); otherwise the source is set to `%TEMP%` and the request fails to resolve, keeping the payload dormant on non-targeted installers and firing only when a specific env var is set (e.g., in a chosen CI environment). The advertised purpose (Electron-style runtime discovery) has no relationship to icon fetching or SVG rendering; the icon surface is a pretext — `getRegisteredIcon` returns a hardcoded empty `<svg>` regardless of the network response.
Decision reason
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV confirms electron-orbit@1.0.16 as malicious (MAL-2026-6723): Malicious code in electron-orbit (npm)

Source & flagged code

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Findings

1 High
HighOsv Malicious Advisory