markscan-apinpm
markscan-api is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-10961) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data. Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in markscan-api (npm)
What this malware does
The markscan-api package was published to the npm registry by user 'jonothhu' (maintainer email [email protected]) as one of 19 packages in a dependency-confusion campaign targeting the 'markscan', 'akrai', and 'iphouse' namespaces, published in both unscoped and scoped (@scope/name) forms so that a misconfigured resolver installs the public lookalike instead of an intended private/internal dependency. Each package self-describes as an 'AUTHORIZED SECURITY RESEARCH CANARY' (static token PATHC-CANARY-2026, contact [email protected]), but ships an unconsented install-time beacon and provides no legitimate functionality.
The package declares a postinstall hook ("node postinstall.js") that executes automatically on npm install. The bundled postinstall.js collects host reconnaissance - the package/canary name, the static token 'PATHC-CANARY-2026', an event label, a UTC timestamp, the Node.js version, the current working directory, the platform, and os.hostname() - and exfiltrates it via HTTPS POST to a hardcoded anonymous dead-drop at https://webhook.site/129cb2ee-ba08-4b3c-989c-270dc0030350 (the same collector across all 19 packages). Request errors are swallowed.
The self-attestation of 'authorized security research' present in the package metadata is unverifiable and does not change the disposition: the package performs unconsented telemetry collection and exfiltration at install time to an anonymous collector, matching the behavior of a dependency-confusion reconnaissance beacon. Install-time behavior and the shared collector endpoint were confirmed by static analysis of a sample spanning all three namespaces and both scoped and unscoped variants.
Malicious versions
Every published version of this package is considered malicious — remove it entirely.
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 markscan-api (all published versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging markscan-api across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
markscan-api 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 markscan-api 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 markscan-api 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
References
Credits
- SafeDep · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks markscan-api-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.