chai-as-structurednpm
chai-as-structured is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10622) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious version 7.0.5). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in chai-as-structured (npm)
What this malware does
The package name evokes chai-as-promised but the shipped code presents itself as pino middleware. When the middleware factory in index.js is invoked, it spawns a detached node child process running lib/initializeCaller.js. That script constructs a fake process.env stub whose DEV_API_KEY, DEV_SECRET_KEY, and DEV_SECRET_VALUE fields are base64 blobs that decode to a URL and request headers pointing at https://tomato-brunhilda-40.tiiny.site/index.json (an anonymous file-hosting host). The response's cookie field is passed to new Function.constructor('require', response) with the host's require handed in, giving the fetched string full Node privileges. The base64 concealment, misleading DEV_API_KEY naming, detached child launch, and typosquat-style package name are consistent with intentional supply-chain attack tradecraft rather than any legitimate loader.
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-structured (version 7.0.5). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chai-as-structured across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
chai-as-structured is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove chai-as-structured, 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-structured 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-structured 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
- ReversingLabs · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks chai-as-structured-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.