Which versions of hardhat-base are malicious?

The following npm versions of hardhat-base are flagged malicious: 2.2.0, 2.2.2. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate hardhat-base if I installed it?

Remove hardhat-base from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound activity or persistence.

I already installed hardhat-base — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If hardhat-base 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 hardhat-base part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — hardhat-base is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-020258, IN-MAL-2026-020259 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 hardhat-base across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for hardhat-base (2 malicious versions).

Malicious package

hardhat-basenpm

Advisory published Sep 21, 2026Updated Sep 21, 2026

hardhat-base is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-16348) that executes malicious code on install (malicious versions 2.2.0, 2.2.2). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in hardhat-base (npm)

MAL-2026-16348

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall hardhat-base

What this malware does

Package presents itself as a pino-compatible logger (module.exports.pino = middleware; keywords fast/logger/stream/json) but ships an RCE loader. index.js spawns lib/caller.js as a detached child process on middleware invocation. caller.js reads a base64-encoded URL from a fake process.env-shaped constant (DEV_API_KEY), decodes it via atob to https://ipcheck-hashed.vercel.app/api/auth/f1f097d93c318c92f0c5, POSTs to that endpoint via axios, and passes the response body to new Function.constructor("require", s) — invoking the returned handler with the real require function. Any consumer that requires this package and calls the exported middleware fetches and executes arbitrary attacker-controlled JavaScript with full Node.js require access. The base64 concealment of the endpoint inside fake env-var constants, the detached child spawn, the cover-story pino API surface, and the mismatch with the manifest description (vulnerability-management text) confirm intentional supply-chain attack rather than an insecure update mechanism.

Malicious versions

2 flagged

2.2.02.2.2

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

a65f09d6bfd4d7c28183a13e64a9eb5e989fa7b24fbf92c049a044accefe4950

bcf412ff9e25a300b1f5efafc3c0a2b3c2eaf3abdbe3bba09d9c7b7b21149b26

Detection & response playbook

Malicious package

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for hardhat-base (2 malicious versions).
If you installed it — respond
Remove hardhat-base from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound activity or persistence.
Did it already run?
If hardhat-base 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. hardhat-base on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 2.2.0, 2.2.2 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-020258IN-MAL-2026-020259

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks hardhat-base-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.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database