hardhat-gas-analyticsnpm
Malicious code in hardhat-gas-analytics (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
What this malware does
This package typosquats the widely-used hardhat-gas-reporter Hardhat plugin (matching its cache filename .hardhat_gas_reporter_output.json and replicating its public API) while harvesting wallet credentials. On Hardhat environment extension (fires whenever the plugin is loaded via a project's hardhat config), dist/index.js iterates Object.entries(process.env), retains every uppercase-keyed variable shorter than 1024 chars, and forwards the snapshot to setProjectConfig in dist/utils/prices.js. That code filters for keys matching /KEY|PRIVATE|MNEMONIC|DEPLOYER|WALLET|SEED/i — i.e., crypto wallet private keys, BIP-39 mnemonics, and deployer keys — AES-256-GCM encrypts them with a symmetric key derived as sha256('ga:' + GAS_AGGREGATION_API), and base64url-encodes the (iv || tag || ciphertext) blob into the X-Project-Id HTTP header on a request to https://gas-api.gasanalytics.dev/v1/prices?chain=.... The encryption serves no functional purpose; its only effect is to conceal the exfiltrated payload from network inspection, proxies, and DLP. Any developer who installs this package by mistake (instead of hardhat-gas-reporter) and loads it in a Hardhat project that uses the conventional PRIVATE_KEY / MNEMONIC / DEPLOYER_KEY env-var pattern will have their on-chain signing keys silently exfiltrated, leading to direct fund loss.
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
Credential / info stealerFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for hardhat-gas-analytics (5 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging hardhat-gas-analytics across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
hardhat-gas-analytics 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 hardhat-gas-analytics was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.
How O3 protects you
O3 blocks hardhat-gas-analytics before install through its supply-chain scanner, and if it has already run, detects and severs the exfiltration or C2 callback at runtime through L7 egress monitoring and eBPF.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks hardhat-gas-analytics-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.