Which versions of nice-utils-helper are malicious?

The following npm versions of nice-utils-helper are flagged malicious: 1.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate nice-utils-helper if I installed it?

nice-utils-helper 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.

I already installed nice-utils-helper — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If nice-utils-helper 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 nice-utils-helper part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — nice-utils-helper is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-018357 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 nice-utils-helper 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 nice-utils-helper (version 1.0.0). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging nice-utils-helper across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

nice-utils-helpernpm

nice-utils-helper is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14248) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious version 1.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in nice-utils-helper (npm)

MAL-2026-14248

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall nice-utils-helper

What this malware does

The npm package [email protected] executes probe.js from its postinstall lifecycle. On install, probe.js issues requests to cloud instance-metadata service endpoints (AWS 169.254.169.254, Aliyun 100.100.100.200, Tencent metadata.tencentyun.com, 169.254.0.23) using curl/http.request/GET and records per-target reachability along with the host's hostname and cwd. It then writes NCODE_META.txt and NCODE_POC_MARKER.txt into the current directory as well as../ and../.., leaving beacon/marker artifacts above the package root. The package advertises itself as a 'game metadata' utility and self-labels the probing as an 'Authorized PoC', but the executed behavior is unsolicited cloud-environment reconnaissance and cross-directory file writes on the installer's machine at install time, unrelated to any advertised utility functionality.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

1.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

5c88734e4d701b61fd197a942bc057f59c684d4eb9994ca0efc7136dfcf893c9

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for nice-utils-helper (version 1.0.0). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging nice-utils-helper across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
nice-utils-helper 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 nice-utils-helper 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 nice-utils-helper 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. nice-utils-helper on npm has been identified as a malicious package (version 1.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-018357

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks nice-utils-helper-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

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