chai-as-hardenednpm
chai-as-hardened is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10621) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious version 7.0.9). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in chai-as-hardened (npm)
What this malware does
On require, index.js spawns a detached Node child process running lib/initializeCaller.js. That script base64-decodes a hardcoded URL (tomato-brunhilda-40.tiiny.site/index.json) via atob, fetches the response with axios, and executes the response body through the Function constructor with require injected, granting the remote payload full Node capabilities on the installer's machine. The destination URL and request header are stored as base64 strings in a shadowed local process.env object to hide the target from static review. Package metadata is a cover story: the name resembles chai-as-promised, the description references vulnerability management, and exports mimic pino (module.exports.pino = middleware) with keywords 'logger', 'stream', 'json' to attract developers into installing and requiring it, at which point the remote-execution chain fires.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
TyposquatFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for chai-as-hardened (version 7.0.9). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-hardened across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
chai-as-hardened is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove chai-as-hardened, 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 chai-as-hardened 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 chai-as-hardened 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 chai-as-hardened-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.