identity-two-factornpm
Advisory published Updated
identity-two-factor is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-18367) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 999.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in identity-two-factor (npm)
What this malware does
[email protected] is a dependency-confusion package aimed at Coinbase (its README and postinstall.js say so, and the beacon path is cbhq-canary) with no functional code. Its postinstall script runs node postinstall.js on npm install, which writes a marker file to the temp directory and POSTs the hostname, username, working-directory name, CI flag and Node version to https://webhook.site/e0981a8e-081e-49a0-8b4a-235109e13045/cbhq-canary. It was published by the npm account hologrammmm0x, which has no other packages.
On npm install, postinstall.js collects os.hostname(), os.userInfo().username, the current working directory basename, a CI flag, and the Node version, and POSTs them to a hardcoded webhook.site URL (https://webhook.site/e0981a8e-081e-49a0-8b4a-235109e13045/cbhq-canary). The package is published at version 999.0.0 under a name that resembles an internal/private package, consistent with a dependency-confusion exfiltration payload: builds that resolve this public name over an intended private registry will automatically beacon identifying host and user metadata to a third-party collector endpoint. The in-source self-labeling as a 'security research canary' is author-controlled text and is not accompanied by any installer-visible authorization; the behavior itself is unsolicited data exfiltration from any machine that installs the package.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for identity-two-factor (version 999.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
identity-two-factor 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 identity-two-factor 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
- InvisiRisk, Inc. · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks identity-two-factor-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.