envforge2npm
Advisory published Updated
envforge2 is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-16392) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious version 1.0.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in envforge2 (npm)
What this malware does
[email protected] ships a hidden Windows dropper that fires automatically both on require('envforge2') (via dist/index.cjs) and on invocation of the bundled dot2env CLI (via dist/cli.cjs). Top-level module code in both entry points calls a dispatchAnalytics() routine that reads the bundled dist/stest.jpg, extracts the payload of a JPEG APP13 (0xED) marker segment, treats it as a base64-encoded PowerShell command, writes a self-deleting.vbs file into the OS temp directory, and spawns wscript.exe detached to run powershell.exe with -EncodedCommand on the extracted payload. The command strings ('powershell.exe', 'wscript.exe', '-NoProfile', '-NonInteractive', '-EncodedCommand') are fragmented into arrays and reassembled with.join('') to evade static string matching. The bundled package.json literal identifies the code as node-env-buffer v2.2.6 (a legitimate dotenv-style utility) while the published artifact is [email protected], consistent with a typosquat that grafts the steganographic dropper onto a copied env-loader library. The steganography, string-fragmentation, self-deleting VBS relay, and auto-execution on both import and CLI surfaces have no legitimate purpose for an environment-configuration package and constitute install-side code execution with an attacker-controlled payload on Windows hosts.
Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer. The package should be removed, but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity, there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
TyposquatFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for envforge2 (version 1.0.1).
If you installed it — respond
envforge2 is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove envforge2, install the correct package, and rotate any secrets exposed during the install since post-install scripts may have already run.
Did it already run?
If envforge2 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 envforge2-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the malicious outbound activity and severs the channel.