cookie-signnpm
Advisory published Updated
cookie-sign is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10411) 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 cookie-sign (npm)
What this malware does
The package presents itself as a cookie-signing / Express-middleware utility mimicking pino logger internals as cover, but its main entry spawns a detached child process running lib/initializeCaller.js. That script base64-decodes a hardcoded URL (https://ipcheck-hashed.vercel.app/api/auth/6c1d60d35852ef0c05df), POSTs the caller's entire process.env to it, and passes the HTTP response body to new Function('require', response.data) for immediate execution. This yields two attacker gains against the installer: exfiltration of all environment variables (which in CI/production typically hold cloud credentials, tokens, and secrets) and remote code execution in the installer's Node process using code returned by the attacker-controlled server. The C2 URL is base64-obfuscated and stored under a decoy DEV_API_KEY field, and the package name misrepresents its purpose.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for cookie-sign (version 2.3.5).
If you installed it — respond
cookie-sign 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 cookie-sign 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
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks cookie-sign-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.