Which versions of self-certificate are malicious?

The following npm versions of self-certificate are flagged malicious: 1.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate self-certificate if I installed it?

Remove self-certificate from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound network activity or persistence. Use O3 Security's dependency scanner to confirm the package and its artifacts are fully purged across your stack.

Is self-certificate part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — self-certificate is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-005730 campaign. Packages in the same campaign often share infrastructure and payloads, so check whether any related packages are also in your dependency tree.

Can O3 Security detect self-certificate in my codebase?

Yes. O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, blocking self-certificate and packages like it before any post-install script runs.

Malicious package

self-certificatenpm

Malicious code in self-certificate (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

MAL-2026-5644

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall self-certificate

What this malware does

The package advertises itself as a self-signed certificate generator, but its main module index.js contains a loadSampleCertificate() routine that reads sample/cert.pem, strips the BEGIN/END CERTIFICATE markers, base64-decodes the body, and passes the result to eval(). The decoded blob is JavaScript (not a real DER certificate) that fetches a script from https://aptupdate.org/settings/privacy.php and pipes the response body into a detached, hidden python3 process via stdin (spawn('python3', ['-'], {detached:true, windowsHide:true})). loadSampleCertificate() is invoked at the top of the exported generateCertificates() API, so any consumer calling the package's headline function triggers attacker-controlled remote code execution on the installer's machine. The PEM-shaped wrapper around base64-encoded JavaScript is deliberate steganography to evade casual review.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

1.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

4a2141f4facbd3abc437287c86971f1b3bb6795fad75990624f735b72139167d

Frequently asked questions

No. self-certificate 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-2026-005730

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Scan your dependencies

O3 Security blocks malicious packages like this at install time and in CI.

Supply-chain protection