portal-backendnpm
Advisory published Updated
portal-backend is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-5781) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 999.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in portal-backend (npm)
What this malware does
On npm install, the package's preinstall hook executes postinstall.js, which enumerates process.env and filters keys matching a broad credential-shaped regex (key|secret|token|pass|private|ssh|deploy|auth|api|rpc|wallet|sentry|docker|graph|slack|host), then bundles those values together with os.hostname(), os.userInfo().username, process.cwd(), and npm registry config into a JSON payload and POSTs it via https.request to 185.130.46.35:8443/collect — a bare IP with no relation to any publisher domain. The source even self-identifies the behavior in a comment ("Exfil CI environment variables on install"). The package itself is hollow: index.js is module.exports = {}, the description is the generic "Internal package," and the version is 999.0.0 — the canonical dependency-confusion shape designed to outrank a private registry's portal-backend and have misconfigured installers fetch this public copy instead. Installing this package on any developer or CI machine immediately ships that machine's CI secrets, deploy tokens, SSH/registry credentials, and host identity to the attacker.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for portal-backend (version 999.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
portal-backend 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 portal-backend 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
- ReversingLabs · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks portal-backend-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.