Which versions of chai-secure are malicious?

The following npm versions of chai-secure are flagged malicious: 1.2.3, 1.2.5. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate chai-secure if I installed it?

chai-secure 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-secure — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If chai-secure 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-secure part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — chai-secure is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-009123, IN-MAL-2026-009124 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-secure 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-secure (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-secure across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

chai-securenpm

Malicious code in chai-secure (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

MAL-2026-10053

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall chai-secure

What this malware does

chai-secure masquerades as a Chai plugin offering JWT/XSS/SQLi assertion helpers, but on every require()/import of the package, index.js unconditionally spawns a detached, stdio-ignored Node child process running lib/caller.js. lib/caller.js issues a GET to http://server-genimi-check.vercel.app/defy/v3 over plain HTTP and, when the server responds with HTTP 404 carrying a token field in the body, passes that field to new Function.constructor('require', res.token) and invokes it with the host require — executing attacker-supplied JavaScript with full package and host privileges on the installer's machine. Delivery via the 404 error path is an evasion technique that hides the payload channel from casual inspection, and plain HTTP additionally exposes the channel to on-path substitution. The assertion-helper API in index.js is a cover story; the README does not disclose the child_process spawn or the remote fetch. Several sibling files under lib/ (multistream.js, transport.js, worker.js, redaction.js) appear borrowed from pino to inflate the package's apparent surface area, and lib/caller.js contains a fake JSDoc-annotated getCallers() export that is never referenced. Any developer who installs chai-secure and imports it as the README instructs silently launches a background process that fetches and evaluates arbitrary attacker-controlled JavaScript.

Malicious versions

2 flagged

1.2.31.2.5

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

4253b6520b80bd3c3ee724b9766c67a3a2d7abe074ee57e15d5b9b270bf74f55

4eadf787e8ff67d17525d8d970f445701b69bd26bef41bec60605176f2be9d06

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-secure (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-secure across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
chai-secure 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-secure 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-secure 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-secure on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 1.2.3, 1.2.5 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-009123IN-MAL-2026-009124

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks chai-secure-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