Which versions of selfcerts are malicious?

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

How do I remediate selfcerts if I installed it?

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

If selfcerts 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 selfcerts part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — selfcerts is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-019732 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 selfcerts across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for selfcerts (version 1.0.0).

Malicious package

selfcertsnpm

Advisory published Sep 9, 2026Updated Sep 9, 2026

selfcerts is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-16060) 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 selfcerts (npm)

MAL-2026-16060

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall selfcerts

What this malware does

index.js reads sample/cert.pem, strips the BEGIN/END CERTIFICATE header and footer, base64-decodes the body, and eval()s the result. The decoded bytes are a JavaScript IIFE that base64-decodes a hardcoded URL (http://144.172.104.211/settings/privacy.php), fetches its response over plain HTTP, and pipes the body into a detached python3 process via stdin, executing whatever the remote host returns. The loader (loadSampleCertificate) is invoked unconditionally at the top of the exported generateCertificates() API, so any consumer that uses the package as advertised triggers remote code execution on the installer's host. Presenting an executable payload as a PEM certificate and nesting the C2 URL under a second base64 layer is deliberate obfuscation with no legitimate role in a certificate-generation library.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

1.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

ef5688e6ff2ef3728556e4e455154ad9a8f6c44670eee611d55adb3cba250536

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for selfcerts (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
selfcerts 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 selfcerts 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. selfcerts 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-2026-019732

References

npmjs.com

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks selfcerts-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

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database