OpenSSF/OSV advisory MAL-2026-3777 confirms this npm version as malicious. Full C2 implant disguised as vue-template-compiler fork. postinstall-run.cjs loads tooling-bootstrap.cjs which contains base64-encoded C2 agent. Decoded payload: registers victim (hostname, username, OS) to Cloudflare tunnel C2 at maiden-apply-looks-education.trycloudflare.com, beacons for tasks, reports results, uploads files. Persists agent ID in ~/.gradle-cache/.aid. Has C2_TLS_INSECURE env var bypass...
Source
OpenSSF Malicious Packages via OSV
Summary
Malicious code in vue-template-compiler-plugin (npm)
Details
Full C2 implant disguised as vue-template-compiler fork. postinstall-run.cjs loads tooling-bootstrap.cjs which contains base64-encoded C2 agent. Decoded payload: registers victim (hostname, username, OS) to Cloudflare tunnel C2 at maiden-apply-looks-education.trycloudflare.com, beacons for tasks, reports results, uploads files. Persists agent ID in ~/.gradle-cache/.aid. Has C2_TLS_INSECURE env var bypass. Package mirrors vue-template-compiler version 2.7.16 and claims to be an 'API-compatible fork with postinstall hooks' — social engineering for npm override/alias substitution.
---
## Source: amazon-inspector (de772e4b79f4da4ae64ea768f8ddc74bd6cd5d5c41f971d30de12ca0c8ed70c1) This package impersonates the legitimate vue-template-compiler (same version 2.7.18, framed as an "API-compatible fork"), and its package.json description instructs consumers to alias the real name to this one via npm overrides or resolve.alias. On install, the postinstall hook (postinstall-run.cjs) loads tooling-bootstrap.cjs, which assembles ~80 base64 string fragments in BOOTSTRAP_B64, Buffer.from-decodes them, writes the result to ~/.gradle/daemon/tooling-api-runtime.mjs (a cover-story path mimicking a Gradle cache), and then spawns node on that file with detached: true, stdio: 'ignore', windowsHide: true, and child.unref() so the process survives npm install. The decoded payload is a remote-access trojan that polls https://maiden-apply-looks-education.trycloudflare.com/ for commands, executes arbitrary shell commands on the installer's host, and exfiltrates files. Three independent block signals: (1) typosquat-with-divergent-API against a top-tier Vue package, (2) obfuscated base64-chunked executable payload decoded and exec'd at install, (3) persistent detached RAT beaconing to an attacker-controlled Cloudflare quick-tunnel.