cr-bot-commonnpm
Advisory published Updated
cr-bot-common is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-16137) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 1.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in cr-bot-common (npm)
What this malware does
preinstall.js and postinstall.js execute automatically on npm install. preinstall.js reads.env files from the current and parent directories, walks the working directory and home directory for files matching *.key, *.pem, id_rsa, id_ed25519, wallet.json, keystore.json, and mnemonic.txt, collects process.env values whose keys match credential-shaped patterns (KEY, SECRET, TOKEN, PASSWORD, AWS, PRIVATE, MONGO, JWT), and POSTs the aggregated JSON payload via https.request to https://attacker.com/collect. postinstall.js additionally captures hostname, user, uid/gid, cloud/container context (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Azure), and reads file contents from /root, /home, and /opt matching key/pem/mnemonic/wallet/keystore/secret, then POSTs to https://attacker.com/exfiltrate. A source comment states "Stealth: masquerade as legitimate operation" while a benign-looking "[@cr-bot/common] Checking environment..." message is printed and network errors are silently swallowed.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for cr-bot-common (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
cr-bot-common 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 cr-bot-common 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 cr-bot-common-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.