Which versions of keyv are malicious?

The following npm versions of keyv are flagged malicious: 6.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate keyv if I installed it?

keyv 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 keyv — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If keyv 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 keyv part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — keyv is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-010972, GHSA-3p9h-f68w-m6fx 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 keyv 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 keyv (version 6.0.0). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging keyv across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

keyvnpm

keyv is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-11524) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 6.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in keyv (npm)

MAL-2026-11524

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall keyv

What this malware does

npm/keyv version 6.0.0 is a trojanized release published on 2026-08-04 during the compromise of the npm/GitHub maintainer account behind the keyv and cacheable package families (user "Jaredwray"). Attackers pushed the malicious payload to the source repository and cut releases through GitHub Actions, so the poisoned versions reached npm with a valid, signed provenance attestation (provenance attests build integrity, not source integrity). Delivery is through the npm install lifecycle: the trojanized package.json adds a preinstall hook ("preinstall": "node setup.mjs") that runs before any project code on a bare npm install, while the normal compiled output is left intact so the package still works after install. setup.mjs downloads a standalone Bun runtime and uses it to run a second stage (shipped as Math_Symbol.js, a heavily obfuscated ~728 KB Bun bundle, referenced at runtime as math_init.js). The stealer harvests credentials from cloud instance metadata (AWS IMDS at 169.254.169.254, ECS at 169.254.170.2, GCP, Azure), AWS/GCP/Azure keys, HashiCorp Vault tokens, Kubernetes service-account tokens, GitHub Actions OIDC and org/repo secrets, and npm tokens, with a TruffleHog-style regex sweep for further secrets and private keys. Using the stolen npm identity (including npm OIDC trusted publishing) it enumerates and republishes further packages the token can reach — which, for a maintainer controlling both keyv and cacheable, gave the worm a large blast radius. Stolen findings are exfiltrated to attacker-created GitHub repositories (descriptions reading "Shai-Hulud: Here We Go Again") and to destinations resolved over DNS, and autostart hooks are planted in the repository's .claude/ and .vscode/ configuration to run the loader when a developer or AI coding agent opens a clone. Treat any environment that installed this version (with install scripts enabled) as fully compromised and rotate every reachable credential. Part of the August 2026 npm worm that poisoned 400+ packages across many organizations.

[email protected] is a lookalike of the popular keyv key-value package but ships an attack chain absent from the real library. The package.json preinstall hook runs a heavily obfuscated setup.mjs whose strings (URLs, shell commands, platform tokens, payload filename) are all reconstructed at runtime via a rotated string-array plus RC4-style decoder. On install, setup.mjs reassembles a GitHub-releases URL for a platform-specific Bun runtime archive (bun-linux-, bun-darwin-, bun-windows-*), downloads it, extracts it via PowerShell Expand-Archive or unzip, chmod+x's the resulting binary, and then uses execFileSync to invoke the shipped Math_Symbol.js under that dropped Bun runtime. Math_Symbol.js is a ~727 KB Bun-compiled bundle (// @bun @bun-cjs prelude) with obfuscated identifiers and a large constant table; it is not referenced by dist/index.mjs and only ever runs under the alien Bun runtime dropped at install. The library's advertised key-value storage has no need for a second language runtime or a hidden compiled bundle. Installing this package causes attacker-controlled code to execute on the installer's machine automatically via the npm preinstall lifecycle, using an alien-runtime dispatch that evades scanners inspecting only Node-resolved code.

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

1 flagged

6.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

4b828a8383aadd40e3c94c5be32dc4466e0d7c4872550f6316da2a195e978ca5

48375bb2643bebbc43e5fd4ee45e9810e9fe77bf95e434aeafbc22d63ab577e6

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 keyv (version 6.0.0). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging keyv across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
keyv 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 keyv 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 keyv 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. keyv on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 6.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-010972GHSA-3p9h-f68w-m6fx

References

Credits

Aikido Security · finder
Amazon Inspector · finder
SafeDep · finder
Socket Threat Research Team · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks keyv-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

Explore

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