@marketfront/designsystemdevtoolnpm
Advisory published Updated
@marketfront/designsystemdevtool is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-6773) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 7.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in @marketfront/designsystemdevtool (npm)
What this malware does
The @marketfront/designsystemdevtool package is part of a 25-package malicious campaign batch-published to the @marketfront npm scope by npm user 'marketfront' ([email protected]) within a roughly 3-minute window on 2026-07-01. All packages in the campaign were published at version 7.0.0 and use e-commerce/marketing frontend component names as cover.
The package declares a postinstall hook (node scripts/postinstall.js) that executes heavily obfuscated (obfuscator.io-style) code automatically at npm install time. Static analysis of the decoded payload revealed a credential harvester that dynamically requires fs, os, http, https, zlib, path and dns, then reads approximately 20 sensitive credential files including ~/.ssh, ~/.aws/credentials, ~/.kube/config, ~/.docker/config.json, ~/.npmrc, ~/.netrc, ~/.pgpass, ~/.git-credentials, ~/.env and ~/.bash_history. Collected data is exfiltrated via a gzip-compressed HTTPS POST with a custom X-Secret header to the path /api/v1/events, alongside a DNS resolver beacon. The command-and-control host is concealed behind an additional RC4+XOR encryption layer around an embedded configuration blob and was not statically resolved.
The decoded behavioral payload (module requires, credential-file target list, exfiltration headers and endpoint) is byte-for-byte identical across sampled packages in the campaign. The campaign shares tooling and infrastructure patterns (obfuscated postinstall credential harvester, X-Secret header, /api/v1/events exfiltration path, RC4-concealed C2) with the earlier @emcd-vue campaign, indicating the same actor rotating scopes and disposable maintainer emails.
This package is a public-registry impersonation of an internal Marketfront scope (README instructs use of a private registry at npm.marketfront.io, and the shipped main dist/index.js re-exports a path../src/index.js that is not present in the tarball — the package has no library functionality). Its only real payload is scripts/postinstall.js, which is obfuscator.io-style with an RC4-decoded string array so that module names (https, dns, os, child_process, zlib), the destination host/path, HTTP headers, and env-variable keywords are only reconstructed at runtime. On install the script gates on process.execArgv, process.env.NODE_OPTIONS, and a wall-clock timing loop to skip execution when --inspect/--debug or debugger instrumentation is detected. When those checks pass, it enumerates process.env in bulk (USERDOMAIN, COMPUTERNAME, PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE, PROGRAMDATA, APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA, TEMP, npm_config_user_agent, NODE_OPTIONS) plus a keyword-driven scan of all environment variable names, collects os.userInfo/hostname/networkInterfaces, package.json contents, and shell command output, and ships the bundle to a runtime-assembled remote endpoint over HTTPS with a DNS-tunnel fallback. Installer harm: any npm install / CI build that resolves this scoped name from the public registry silently leaks host identifiers, environment variables (which typically include CI tokens, cloud credentials, and internal URLs), and system reconnaissance to attacker infrastructure at install time.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for @marketfront/designsystemdevtool (version 7.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
@marketfront/designsystemdevtool is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.
Did it already run?
If @marketfront/designsystemdevtool was installed, its post-install payload may already have run. Removing the package does not undo that — check outbound connections and credential use from the install window onward.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
- SafeDep · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks @marketfront/designsystemdevtool-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.