Which versions of ckeditor5-ckbox are malicious?

The following npm versions of ckeditor5-ckbox are flagged malicious: 5.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate ckeditor5-ckbox if I installed it?

ckeditor5-ckbox establishes remote access, so treat any host that installed it as fully compromised. Isolate the machine, remove the package, rotate all credentials it could reach, and rebuild from a trusted image rather than cleaning in place — a backdoor may have planted additional persistence.

I already installed ckeditor5-ckbox — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If ckeditor5-ckbox 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 ckeditor5-ckbox part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — ckeditor5-ckbox is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-019147 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 ckeditor5-ckbox across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for ckeditor5-ckbox (version 5.0.0).

Malicious package

ckeditor5-ckboxnpm

Advisory published Aug 29, 2026Updated Aug 29, 2026

ckeditor5-ckbox is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-15549) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious version 5.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in ckeditor5-ckbox (npm)

MAL-2026-15549

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall ckeditor5-ckbox

What this malware does

Unscoped npm package ckeditor5-ckbox mimics the legitimate @ckeditor/ckeditor5-ckbox plugin. package.json declares a preinstall hook (node index.js) that runs on npm install. index.js collects installer machine identifiers — os.hostname(), os.userInfo() (username, uid, gid, shell), platform/arch, home directory, cwd, and the output of whoami and id executed via child_process — and POSTs the JSON to the hardcoded Burp Collaborator OAST domain https://shdu19bid9mc4e6lezjmldk0erki88wx.oastify.com/system-info. The package contains no CKEditor functionality; the sole payload is the install-time beacon. Author/description are empty and the name is a typosquat of the scoped legitimate package.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

5.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

9373ed3aa6afb53ef5d5d3dd4860a4ed9e7b151fdd8c5c7782f2b2e914810fc7

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for ckeditor5-ckbox (version 5.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
ckeditor5-ckbox establishes remote access, so treat any host that installed it as fully compromised. Isolate the machine, remove the package, rotate all credentials it could reach, and rebuild from a trusted image rather than cleaning in place — a backdoor may have planted additional persistence.
Did it already run?
If ckeditor5-ckbox 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. ckeditor5-ckbox on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 5.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-019147

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks ckeditor5-ckbox-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

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