chai-as-relaynpm
Advisory published Updated
chai-as-relay is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-17189) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious version 1.2.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in chai-as-relay (npm)
What this malware does
Package main index.js unconditionally requires./lib/config at module load. lib/config.js is a single-line ~4.4MB obfuscator.io-packed IIFE (hex-escaped string-array of 26,102 entries, rotated with wrapper decoders, control-flow flattening, ~133k transform changes) that self-invokes at top level. Any consumer that require('chai-as-relay') executes this opaque bundle in-process. The remainder of the tarball (README, LICENSE, index.d.ts, lib/proto, etc.) is copied verbatim from the legitimate pino logger project, and index.js additionally exports a no-op Express-style middleware — the package's advertised identity is a cover for the dropper. The package.json name (chai-as-relay) and author ([email protected]) have no relationship to pino or its maintainers. A heavily obfuscated, multi-megabyte, self-executing blob wired into the require entry of a package that impersonates a top-tier logger has no legitimate purpose and gives whoever controls the payload arbitrary code execution on every installer that imports the package.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
TyposquatFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for chai-as-relay (version 1.2.1).
If you installed it — respond
chai-as-relay is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove chai-as-relay, 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-relay 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
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks chai-as-relay-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.