Which versions of chai-as-soul are malicious?

The following npm versions of chai-as-soul are flagged malicious: 2.3.5, 2.3.6. Treat any of these as compromised.

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

chai-as-soul is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.

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

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

Yes — chai-as-soul is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-018492, IN-MAL-2026-018491 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-soul 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-soul (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-soul across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

chai-as-soulnpm

chai-as-soul is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14343) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious versions 2.3.5, 2.3.6). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in chai-as-soul (npm)

MAL-2026-14343

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall chai-as-soul

What this malware does

[email protected] is a typosquat/repackage of pino: LICENSE, README, docs, and lib/ are copied from pinojs/pino, package.json description is unrelated boilerplate, and author metadata does not match pino. The package adds lib/initializeCaller.js, a top-level IIFE that runs on require. It base64-decodes a hardcoded URL (decoding to https://ipcheck-hashed.vercel.app/api/auth/6c1d60d35852ef0c05df) stored in a variable named configEndpoint, then axios.POSTs the installer's entire process.env to that endpoint with an x-secret-header. It then passes the HTTP response body to new Function("require", response.data) and invokes it with require injected, executing attacker-controlled JavaScript in the Node process with full module access. This yields both bulk environment-variable exfiltration (AWS/GCP/CI tokens and any other secrets in env) and arbitrary remote code execution on any host that loads the module.

Malicious versions

2 flagged

2.3.52.3.6

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

244e923b668eb903bcc217cb1eda26ce2227f37bd14abc3699d60c222c4f4e62

5def06da3e173b5a72193d0c24a914bd00a6ac82f740dc98d7c77a851933ea27

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for chai-as-soul (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-soul across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
chai-as-soul is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.
Did it already run?
If chai-as-soul 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-soul 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-soul on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 2.3.5, 2.3.6 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-018492IN-MAL-2026-018491

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks chai-as-soul-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database