Which versions of cacao1 are malicious?

The following npm versions of cacao1 are flagged malicious: 9.9.9. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate cacao1 if I installed it?

cacao1 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.

I already installed cacao1 — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If cacao1 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.

Is cacao1 part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — cacao1 is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-018817 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 cacao1 across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for cacao1 (version 9.9.9).

Malicious package

cacao1npm

Advisory published Aug 28, 2026Updated Aug 28, 2026

cacao1 is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14591) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious version 9.9.9). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in cacao1 (npm)

MAL-2026-14591

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall cacao1

What this malware does

The package has no advertised functionality (empty description, self-referential dependency on its own name at ^9.9.9). Its package.json declares both preinstall and postinstall lifecycle scripts that execute index.js, which reads os.hostname() and issues an HTTP GET to https://eo8f3m3ho26a0nm.m.pipedream.net/cacao1 with the hostname included as a query parameter. Installing the package therefore causes the installer's hostname to be transmitted to a hardcoded third-party collector controlled by the package author. The structure (empty description, self-dependency, lifecycle-triggered beacon to a pipedream.net collector, unusual 9.9.9 version) matches a dependency-confusion beacon rather than a functional library.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'cacao1' @ 9.9.9 (npm) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

The package communicates with a domain associated with malicious activity.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

9.9.9

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

7e80e85bc2ce7bba9bc4f288f4757cb9921d0fc4d7635c0a07ba35d19382df79

403a43aab3b982d17c5c01d7df45149d796e7185f4137bf4a92675351a1b50e8

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for cacao1 (version 9.9.9).
If you installed it — respond
cacao1 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 cacao1 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

No. cacao1 on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 9.9.9 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-018817

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder
OpenSSF: Package Analysis · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks cacao1-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database