Which versions of nepublisher are malicious?

The following npm versions of nepublisher are flagged malicious: 0.4.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate nepublisher if I installed it?

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

If nepublisher 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.

Is nepublisher part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — nepublisher is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-006884 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 nepublisher across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for nepublisher (version 0.4.0).

Malicious package

nepublishernpm

Advisory published Jun 17, 2026Updated Jun 17, 2026

nepublisher is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-5984) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 0.4.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in nepublisher (npm)

MAL-2026-5984

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall nepublisher

What this malware does

On npm install, lib/_init.js spawns a detached Node child process that collects host identifiers (hostname, username, cwd, IPv4 addresses, Node version, npm registry) and the names of environment variables matching /NPM|NODE|CI|JENKINS|GIT|BUILD|RUNNER|DOCKER|KUBE|REGISTRY/, then HTTPS-POSTs the data to a hardcoded DingTalk robot webhook (oapi.dingtalk.com/robot/send) with a Chinese title meaning 'someone came online'. The script also contains explicit sandbox-evasion logic at lib/_init.js:9-12 that no-ops when the username or hostname contains 'sandbox', 'malware', 'analyst', 'cuckoo', 'analysis', or 'sample' — a clear intent signal designed to hide the beacon from automated analyzers. The collected fields plus the CI/registry-focused env-name filter are the canonical dependency-confusion reconnaissance pattern: identify which organizations have pulled the package by mistake and harvest target intel for follow-on internal-package attacks.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

0.4.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

9fc0d0609f88630f7ce36adf18c70a1d6bd3d64aaaa059a3b8ec9b97b813705a

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for nepublisher (version 0.4.0).
If you installed it — respond
nepublisher 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 nepublisher 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

No. nepublisher on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 0.4.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-006884

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks nepublisher-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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