hydration-cls-uinpm
Advisory published Updated
hydration-cls-ui is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14489) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 1.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in hydration-cls-ui (npm)
What this malware does
The package advertises itself as a dependency-free streak/date-math library but ships an x86_64 Linux ELF at dist/internal/calc.dat and auto-launches it. The main module dist/index.mjs contains a top-level IIFE that resolves the binary path, verifies a hardcoded SHA-256, chmods it to 0755, and spawns it detached via cp.spawn with stdio 'pipe' and shell false — running the moment any consumer imports the package. The internal daymath.mjs _ensureEngine() is a stub returning true, so the ELF has no computational role. Strings inside calc.dat identify a full remote-access tool ("RedShell") with a /redshell command dispatcher exposing socks, portfwd, bin, elf, and persist subcommands, a SOCKS5 proxy, TCP port forwarding, arbitrary /bin/sh command execution with output capture, and TLS beaconing (libssl.so.3) to a hardcoded C2 at 217.60.77.63. Second-stage delivery uses curl to fetch ELF payloads from http://217.60.77.63/Others/<file> and shellcode from http://217.60.77.63/SC/<file>, executed via memfd_create (syscall 319) or /tmp/.elf_XXXXXX staging with chmod +x, plus a dropper reference to https://litterbox.catbox.moe/resources/internals/api.php. Bulk exfiltration is implemented as chunked POST /api/extract-receive HTTP/1.1 with Content-Type: application/octet-stream to the C2, alongside /ssh_keys, /creds, /dbfind, /download, /upload, /env, and /clipboard handlers that harvest SSH keys, credential stores, environment variables, and clipboard contents. Persistence is installed by writing ~/.config/systemd/user/svc-update.service (Description="System Update Service", ExecStart=/proc/self/exe, Restart=always) and enabling it with systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user enable --now, with additional cron, ~/.bashrc, and XDG-autostart branches. The README lists the shipped file as internal/calc-cache.bin while the actual name is internal/calc.dat, and wrapper comments describe it as a "native math accelerator" and "integrity verification — critical security gate", disguising the ELF payload.
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
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for hydration-cls-ui (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
hydration-cls-ui 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 hydration-cls-ui 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 hydration-cls-ui-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.