Which versions of chalk-utils are malicious?

The following npm versions of chalk-utils are flagged malicious: 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 2.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate chalk-utils if I installed it?

chalk-utils 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 chalk-utils — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If chalk-utils 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 chalk-utils part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — chalk-utils is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-002670, IN-MAL-2026-002671, IN-MAL-2026-002669 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 chalk-utils 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 chalk-utils (3 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chalk-utils across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

chalk-utilsnpm

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

MAL-2026-3755

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall chalk-utils

What this malware does

On npm install, postinstall.js runs a credential and cryptocurrency stealer against the installer's machine. It reads ~/.npmrc (extracting authToken and npm* tokens), ~/.git-credentials, and ~/.env (extracting values keyed by token/secret/password/api/aws/gcp/stripe patterns), then iterates a hardcoded list of 71 browser extension IDs for major crypto wallets (MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, Exodus, Trust, Binance, OKX, Ledger Live, Trezor, and others) across Chrome/Brave/Edge/Chromium/Vivaldi/Opera profiles, reading each extension's Local Extension Settings LevelDB .log files and applying regexes for vault, seed, privateKey, mnemonic, password, and encrypted. It additionally walks ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, and ~/Downloads for filenames matching crypto keywords (seed, backup, wallet, phrase, metamask, phantom, vault, key, private), scores file contents against a BIP-39 word list, and harvests any file with >=8 BIP-39 matches along with a 100-character content preview. Harvested data (plus os.hostname() and os.userInfo().username) is POSTed in cleartext to http://149.28.127.35:8888, a bare-IP C2 endpoint overridable via a C2_URL environment variable to support endpoint rotation. The package name chalk-utils masquerades as belonging to the chalk ecosystem while index.js is a dummy stub whose comment reads lodash-js — Just a dummy module. The real payload is in postinstall.js, and postinstall.js self-describes as Token harvester + Crypto wallet scanner. Runs on npm install. Silent. Zero trace.

Malicious versions

3 flagged

1.0.31.0.42.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

91db66ecd03074751b8ba9161392a616bb388110f87bde3bba527b072060d047

abf624d09ac235b4070c91a31cdc049ee53620da917208668be8003956368687

d0fe2974289b691a9f5541068f2e399aecb14a719779202ff5999652ffe351db

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 chalk-utils (3 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging chalk-utils across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
chalk-utils 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 chalk-utils 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 chalk-utils 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. chalk-utils on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 2.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-002670IN-MAL-2026-002671IN-MAL-2026-002669

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks chalk-utils-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