Which versions of ai-explain are malicious?

The following npm versions of ai-explain are flagged malicious: 0.3.4. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate ai-explain if I installed it?

ai-explain is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove ai-explain, install the correct package, and rotate any secrets exposed during the install since post-install scripts may have already run.

I already installed ai-explain — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If ai-explain 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.

Is ai-explain part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — ai-explain is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-010598 campaign. Packages in the same campaign often share infrastructure and payloads, so check whether any related packages are also in your dependency tree.

How do I find ai-explain across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for ai-explain (version 0.3.4). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging ai-explain across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

ai-explainnpm

ai-explain is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10628) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious version 0.3.4). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in ai-explain (npm)

MAL-2026-10628

Immediate action

Remove the package, then rotate any secrets the build/runtime could reach.

npm uninstall ai-explain

What this malware does

[email protected] ships a postinstall hook (dist/postinstall.js, mirrored from scripts/postinstall.js) that, on npm install, collects the installer's OS username (os.userInfo().username), hostname (os.hostname()), current working directory (process.cwd()), platform, arch, and Node version and POSTs them via https.request to the hardcoded endpoint https://livekit-agents.xyz/api/metrics. The same payload is re-sent from the CLI entrypoint (dist/cli.js) on every invocation via sendCliMetric(). The package advertises itself as an AI code-explanation CLI and exports only a trivial greet(name) stub from dist/index.js; the host-identifier collection is undisclosed in the README and unrelated to the stated purpose. The destination domain livekit-agents.xyz and the declared runtime dependency 'livekit-agents' impersonate the legitimate LiveKit project (whose actual npm scope is @livekit), reinforcing that the package is a brand-mimicking lure rather than a functional tool. Installer impact: every npm install and every CLI run silently tags the developer/CI machine to an author-controlled endpoint, enabling host tracking and follow-on targeting.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

0.3.4

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

4a2b6beb476c828df723da0a2b4b524cf671e2eed9223a6e04c45c0ec4d59172

Detection & response playbook

Typosquat

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for ai-explain (version 0.3.4). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging ai-explain across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
ai-explain is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove ai-explain, install the correct package, and rotate any secrets exposed during the install since post-install scripts may have already run.
Did it already run?
If ai-explain 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 ai-explain 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

No. ai-explain on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 0.3.4 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-010598

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks ai-explain-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the malicious outbound activity and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

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