Which versions of gaarf are malicious?

The following npm versions of gaarf are flagged malicious: 3.2.1. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate gaarf if I installed it?

gaarf 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 gaarf — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If gaarf 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 gaarf part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — gaarf is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-018337 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 gaarf across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for gaarf (version 3.2.1).

Malicious package

gaarfnpm

gaarf is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14236) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious version 3.2.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in gaarf (npm)

MAL-2026-14236

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall gaarf

What this malware does

The package's postinstall lifecycle script runs automatically on npm install and collects installer host identifiers (os.hostname(), platform, arch, Node version, package name, lifecycle event) and POSTs them to the hardcoded host n8wx863s.instances.poc.jchunt.top at path /gaarf. The destination is not the installer's infrastructure and is not caller-configurable. The package name 'gaarf' matches the short name of google/ads-api-report-fetcher, so installs are most likely typos of that package; the beacon fires on those mistaken installs and reports the mistyping host to a third-party endpoint.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

3.2.1

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

3c3312540cdedc807029a549ffd3b49b917704323a3b664c6d71ae6849c192b9

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for gaarf (version 3.2.1).
If you installed it — respond
gaarf 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 gaarf 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. gaarf on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 3.2.1 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-018337

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks gaarf-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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