Which versions of chai-as-modified are malicious?

The following npm versions of chai-as-modified are flagged malicious: 6.0.4. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate chai-as-modified if I installed it?

Remove chai-as-modified 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.

I already installed chai-as-modified — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If chai-as-modified 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 chai-as-modified part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — chai-as-modified is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-009145 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 chai-as-modified 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 chai-as-modified (version 6.0.4). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-modified across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

chai-as-modifiednpm

chai-as-modified is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10043) that executes malicious code on install (malicious version 6.0.4). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in chai-as-modified (npm)

MAL-2026-10043

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall chai-as-modified

What this malware does

Package name is a 1-2 character variant of the widely-used chai-as-promised plugin. The exported function — the entry point users pass to chai.use(...) per the copied pino README — invokes a runBackgroundTask helper that spawns a detached node subprocess (detached: true, stdio: 'ignore', child.unref()) running a sibling ./lib/initializeCaller.js, then returns a no-op pass-through middleware. The detached, unref'd child is decoupled from the parent test runner and outlives it — an out-of-band execution channel that has no relationship to the advertised purpose of a chai assertion plugin. The lib/ directory ships a verbatim copy of unrelated pino source as decoy content, and the README is copied from pinojs/pino. In this specific tarball the referenced ./lib/initializeCaller.js file is not present, so the fork currently errors out, but the launcher stub, name-confusion vector, decoy content, and covert-execution mechanism are all in place; the missing payload is consistent with a staged release or intended delivery via a sibling/subsequent publish.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

6.0.4

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

ab841cd3ab01bfcd1257a214489b41f10e236779e236a0672642777160245a9e

Detection & response playbook

Malicious package

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for chai-as-modified (version 6.0.4). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-modified across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
Remove chai-as-modified 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 chai-as-modified 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-modified 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. chai-as-modified on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 6.0.4 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-009145

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks chai-as-modified-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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