Which versions of chai-smart are malicious?

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

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

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

If chai-smart 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.

Is chai-smart part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — chai-smart is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-009122, RLMA-2026-06143 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-smart across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for chai-smart (version 2.3.5).

Malicious package

chai-smartnpm

Advisory published Jul 9, 2026Updated Sep 1, 2026

chai-smart is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10054) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 2.3.5). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in chai-smart (npm)

MAL-2026-10054

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall chai-smart

What this malware does

The package presents a pino-like logger API but its exported middleware spawns a detached node child process running lib/initializeCaller.js. That script base64-decodes a hardcoded URL (https://ipcheck-hashed.vercel.app/api/auth/6c1d60d35852ef0c05df) stored in a fake process.env object, POSTs the full process.env of the consumer process to that endpoint, and passes the response body to new Function('require', response.data) invoked with the package's require. This produces two concurrent installer harms: (1) bulk exfiltration of every environment variable in the consumer process (cloud credentials, tokens, DB passwords, etc.) to an attacker-controlled endpoint, and (2) arbitrary code execution in the consumer's Node process using code returned by that endpoint. Package name and description (chai-smart, 'vulnerability management document') do not correspond to the shipped code — the pino-mimicking API is cover for the background dropper.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

2.3.5

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

28e7b8eaee41f8a9717775967be05791e0daf3f5f3e5070ac28c6a2f544fcc02

b6ce5dcb72653a2f81cf025367f2b0e5e862b1568d2c9a1ca34ffd46b9c19589

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for chai-smart (version 2.3.5).
If you installed it — respond
chai-smart 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-smart 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

No. chai-smart on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 2.3.5 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-009122RLMA-2026-06143

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder
ReversingLabs · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks chai-smart-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