midpatchnpm
Malicious code in midpatch (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
What this malware does
The package advertises a logger middleware (keywords fast/logger/stream/json, exports module.exports.pino = middleware, file.js wraps a ./pino module) so consumers will install and mount it as Express middleware. On first invocation, index.js spawns a detached, stdio-ignored child process running node lib/caller.js, which fetches JavaScript from https://jsonkeeper.com/b/XRGF3 (a public, attacker-mutable paste host) and evaluates the response's cookie field via new Function.constructor('require', s)(require), granting the remote payload full Node require access. The C2 URLs are base64-obfuscated inside fake process.env defaults (DEV_API_KEY: "aHR0cHM6Ly9qc29ua2VlcGVyLmNvbS9iL1hSR0Yz" and a second paste ID 4NAKK in lib/const.js) to evade casual review and string scanners. The combination of pino-shaped lure + detached/hidden child + remote-fetched eval from a mutable paste host + base64-hidden endpoints is unambiguous supply-chain RCE — any consumer that mounts the middleware executes attacker-controlled code.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Backdoor / remote accessFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for midpatch (version 1.1.9). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging midpatch across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
midpatch establishes remote access, so treat any host that installed it as fully compromised. Isolate the machine, remove the package, rotate all credentials it could reach, and rebuild from a trusted image rather than cleaning in place — a backdoor may have planted additional persistence.
Did it already run?
If midpatch 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 midpatch 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
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks midpatch-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.