Malware in NPM Packages

Advisories from GitHub states, that two popular npm package managers the Coa parser and the rc configuration loader were compromised and rigged with password stealing malware.

The package rc had versions published with malicious code. Users of affected versions (1.2.9, 1.3.9, and 2.3.9) should downgrade to 1.2.8 as soon as possible and check their systems for suspicious activity. It’s widely distributed and used by organizations and counts more than 14 million weekly downloads.

The exact issue also hit the Coa parser for command line options. Coa counts about 8.8 million downloads per week and is another link in the open-source software supply chain.

Any computer that has package installed or running should be considered fully compromised.All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer. The package should be removed, but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity, there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it.

This is the second major npm package manager breach involving malware silently planted in a popular JavaScript library, ua-parser-js, an npm package that counts close to 8 million downloads per week.

The hack raised eyebrows because of the software supply chain implications and prompted an extremely urgent warning from GitHub that any computer with the embedded npm package should be considered fully compromised. Users of affected versions (0.7.29, 0.8.0, 1.0.0) should upgrade as soon as possible and check their systems for suspicious activity.