Which versions of hardhat-zet are malicious?

The following npm versions of hardhat-zet are flagged malicious: 2.0.1. Treat any of these as compromised.

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

hardhat-zet 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.

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

If hardhat-zet 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.

Is hardhat-zet part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — hardhat-zet is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-020621 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-zet across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for hardhat-zet (version 2.0.1). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging hardhat-zet across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

hardhat-zetnpm

hardhat-zet is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-17234) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 2.0.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in hardhat-zet (npm)

MAL-2026-17234

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall hardhat-zet

What this malware does

[email protected] is published under a name that impersonates the Hardhat Ethereum tooling ecosystem, but its README, type definitions and docs/ tree are copied verbatim from the unrelated pino logger project (badges and links point at npmjs.com/package/pino and github.com/pinojs/pino). The exported middleware in index.js is a no-op Express middleware and matches neither the hardhat-zet name nor the pino README. The package's declared main (index.js) top-level-requires./lib/config, which is not a configuration file but a 4,498,609-byte obfuscator.io-style bundle: a 26,113-entry rotated string array behind two runtime decoders (functions v and F), hex-encoded identifiers, and control-flow flattening. All strings and destination URLs are hidden behind the decoders, so this code runs automatically on any require('hardhat-zet') and its behavior is not observable without deobfuscation. Publisher metadata (author 'Robert King [email protected]', bugs URL https://jsonspack.com/issues) ties to neither the Hardhat nor the pino identity. The combination — ecosystem-typosquat name targeting crypto/Hardhat developers, cover-story README lifted from an unrelated popular package, no-op public API, and a multi-megabyte obfuscated payload auto-executed on import — is the shape of a supply-chain stealer aimed at Ethereum developers.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

2.0.1

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

37cd33c0908189c0085fba153be1c42776411968aa5ad652dd7ffdef88b318bc

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for hardhat-zet (version 2.0.1). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging hardhat-zet across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
hardhat-zet 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-zet 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-zet 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

No. hardhat-zet on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 2.0.1 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-020621

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks hardhat-zet-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

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