Which versions of cold-debug-elevator are malicious?

The following npm versions of cold-debug-elevator are flagged malicious: 1.0.1, 1.0.3, 1.0.4. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate cold-debug-elevator if I installed it?

cold-debug-elevator 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 cold-debug-elevator — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If cold-debug-elevator 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 cold-debug-elevator part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — cold-debug-elevator is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-009849, IN-MAL-2026-009847, IN-MAL-2026-009848 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 cold-debug-elevator 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 cold-debug-elevator (3 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging cold-debug-elevator across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

cold-debug-elevatornpm

Malicious code in cold-debug-elevator (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

MAL-2026-10409

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall cold-debug-elevator

What this malware does

The package presents itself as a debugging utility but its exported API is a browser credential stealer targeting installer-owned secrets. The extract(browserPath, outputPath) entry point spawns Chrome/Edge/Brave under a debugger, locates the OSCrypt App-Bound Encryption provider inside chrome.dll/msedge.dll via Zydis disassembly (searching for the OSCrypt.AppBoundProvider.Decrypt.ResultCode string), sets a hardware execute breakpoint, and reads the 32-byte AppBound key out of process registers via ReadProcessMemory. It then DPAPI-decrypts the Local State master key and issues SELECT... encrypted_value FROM cookies and SELECT origin_url, username_value, password_value FROM logins against every Chrome/Edge/Brave profile, AES-GCM-decrypting cookies, saved passwords, autofill and history. A second entry point extractGecko(outputPath) loads nss3.dll from installed Firefox, Thunderbird, Waterfox, SeaMonkey, Pale Moon, LibreWolf and Tor Browser and calls PK11SDR_Decrypt to recover saved passwords from logins.json, then copies cookies.sqlite, formhistory.sqlite and places.sqlite from each profile. Output files are delimited with a <Sage Private> branding string consistent with offensive tooling. binding.gyp references vcpkg paths outside the tarball (<(module_root_dir)\..\builder\src\Chromium-DebugElevator-main (1)\...), so node-gyp rebuild will fail on a normal install — the stealer is distributed as C++ source and runs only after a consumer builds it manually and invokes the API, but the shipped code has no purpose other than harvesting browser secrets from the machine that runs it.

Malicious versions

3 flagged

1.0.11.0.31.0.4

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

3defc6f8e0e63aff3ba2c8a1c152bde6d68bd0dda24ad9c14c1389236ee62ffd

5fe7b18c62acf544a82f1022bba7b58ed8995c5ea0387ac5f06783caffaf30e2

cae8ef53b42bfe7f208c404e2e973600fa174f41c5a2009814f5f0e892769195

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 cold-debug-elevator (3 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging cold-debug-elevator across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
cold-debug-elevator 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 cold-debug-elevator 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 cold-debug-elevator 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. cold-debug-elevator on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 1.0.1, 1.0.3, 1.0.4 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-009849IN-MAL-2026-009847IN-MAL-2026-009848

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks cold-debug-elevator-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