brane-venus-betelgeuse-altairnpm
Advisory published Updated
brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2025-185911) that executes malicious code on install. Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair (npm)
What this malware does
This package appears to be part of the tea.xyz token reward campaign that flooded npm. These packages typically contain autopublish scripts (auto.js, autopublish.js, autopublish2.js, autopublish3.js) designed to automatically generate and publish derivative packages with randomized names to inflate developer reputation scores for tea protocol token rewards. The malicious payload modifies package.json to remove private flags, changes version numbers, generates random Indonesian-themed package names (some variants are also in English), and continuously republishes variants to pollute the npm registry.
Malicious versions
Every published version of this package is considered malicious — remove it entirely.
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Malicious packageFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair (all published versions).
If you installed it — respond
Remove brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound activity or persistence.
Did it already run?
If brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair 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
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks brane-venus-betelgeuse-altair-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.