o3formsnpm
Advisory published Updated
o3forms is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-5450) that typosquats a legitimate package to trick installs (malicious versions 90.0.0, 99.1.99). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in o3forms (npm)
What this malware does
The package name impersonates the OpenMRS O3 forms ecosystem (legitimate packages are published under the @openmrs/ scope). package.json declares an optionalDependency o3forms-utils resolved as github:core-modules-lab/o3forms-utils#76c1c55 — code fetched directly from GitHub, outside npm registry scanning. index.js (lines 1-4) wraps require('o3forms-utils') in a try/catch that silently swallows errors, so the off-registry payload executes on every consumer import with no visible failure if anything goes wrong. The package.json bin field maps 11 ubiquitous dev-tool names (webpack, vite, eslint, tsc, next, jest, prettier, nodemon, turbo, ts-node, webpack-cli) all to index.js, so any hoisted invocation of those commands (e.g. npx webpack) launches this package's loader and triggers the GitHub fetch+execute. Additional attacker-hygiene tells: version 99.1.99 (version-squat to outrank legitimate releases), config.unsafe-perm: true to keep root during npm scripts, and a placeholder OpenMRS Community Contributor author with no homepage. Installing or loading this package — or running any of the hijacked dev-tool commands in a project where it is hoisted — executes attacker-controlled code from a mutable GitHub commit.
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
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
TyposquatFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for o3forms (2 malicious versions).
If you installed it — respond
o3forms is a typosquat — you almost certainly intended a legitimately-named package. Remove o3forms, install the correct package, and rotate any secrets exposed during the install since post-install scripts may have already run.
Did it already run?
If o3forms 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
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks o3forms-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the malicious outbound activity and severs the channel.