@httpactions/encode-urlnpm
Malicious code in @httpactions/encode-url (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
What this malware does
The package ships a single heavily obfuscated index.js that performs no URL-encoding work despite the package name. On require() of the declared main, top-level invocation of Zt() triggers an HTTP GET to a hardcoded C2 endpoint whose URL is reconstructed from base64 fragments combined via an XOR routine (function H). The response body is written to disk via fs.writeFileSync and executed by child_process.exec / child_process.spawn using process.execPath (the local Node runtime). A second routine mt() POSTs host identifiers — os.hostname(), os.userInfo().username, platform, arch — to the same C2 on every load, and a setInterval re-runs the fetch-and-execute loop approximately every 615 seconds. All sensitive identifiers ('child_process', 'fs', 'exec', 'spawn', 'writeFileSync', 'hostname', 'userInfo', etc.) are concealed as base64 strings with a leading-byte strip, behind an obfuscator.io string-array dispatcher. package.json has empty description, empty author, no repository, and the module exports nothing — the only effect of installing or requiring this package is the dropper. The @httpactions scope and the encode-url name are a lure with no matching functionality.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Backdoor / remote accessFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for @httpactions/encode-url (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging @httpactions/encode-url across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
@httpactions/encode-url establishes remote access, so treat any host that installed it as fully compromised. Isolate the machine, remove the package, rotate all credentials it could reach, and rebuild from a trusted image rather than cleaning in place — a backdoor may have planted additional persistence.
Did it already run?
If @httpactions/encode-url was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.
How O3 protects you
O3 blocks @httpactions/encode-url before install through its supply-chain scanner, and if it has already run, detects and severs the exfiltration or C2 callback at runtime through L7 egress monitoring and eBPF.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks @httpactions/encode-url-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.