tailwindcss-form-utilsnpm
Advisory published Updated
tailwindcss-form-utils is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-16263) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious version 0.5.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in tailwindcss-form-utils (npm)
What this malware does
The package publishes under the name tailwindcss-form-utils while pointing its repository field at https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss-forms and mirroring that project's README verbatim, positioning itself as a lookalike of the first-party Tailwind Labs forms plugin. Its main entrypoint src/index.js is heavily obfuscated (obfuscator.io string-array with rotation, hex identifier renaming, 303 encoded string entries) and, once decoded, imports node:http, node:https, node:zlib, node:url and node:child_process spawn. It hard-codes an Ethereum sender address 0xa322E5f3D311D3080e9aDC2490Ef6f0121063e1a and queries Ethereum RPC endpoints (1rpc.io/eth, *.publicnode.com, eth.drpc.org) plus a blockscout/etherscan-style txlist indexer to retrieve transaction payloads authored by that address, reconstructs JavaScript source from the returned data, and injects it into the global scope (global.r=require, global.m=module) before executing it via child_process spawn. The blockchain acts as a mutable, attacker-writable command channel: whichever payload the attacker's address most recently published in a transaction becomes code executed on every require of the package. A Tailwind CSS plugin has no legitimate need for child_process, HTTP fetches to Ethereum RPCs, or dynamic global code assembly.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Backdoor / remote accessFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for tailwindcss-form-utils (version 0.5.1).
If you installed it — respond
tailwindcss-form-utils 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 tailwindcss-form-utils 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 tailwindcss-form-utils-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the C2 callback and severs the channel.