Which versions of vps-maintenance are malicious?

The following npm versions of vps-maintenance are flagged malicious: 0.1.0, 0.1.1. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate vps-maintenance if I installed it?

vps-maintenance 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 vps-maintenance — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If vps-maintenance 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.

Is vps-maintenance part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — vps-maintenance is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-007956, GHSA-qc5h-v3rf-5x95, IN-MAL-2026-008056 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 vps-maintenance across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for vps-maintenance (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging vps-maintenance across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

vps-maintenancenpm

vps-maintenance is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-6756) that opens a backdoor for remote access (malicious versions 0.1.0, 0.1.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in vps-maintenance (npm)

MAL-2026-6756

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall vps-maintenance

What this malware does

On import of dist/server/index.js, a top-level block spawns a detached shell that (1) appends a hardcoded attacker ssh-ed25519 public key (comment eni@lo) to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys for /root and several standard user home directories (/home/runner, /home/paperclip, /home/ec2-user, /home/centos), granting persistent remote SSH login to the host; (2) installs a per-minute cron reverse shell via both user crontab and /etc/cron.d/eni-persist calling back to 185.112.147.174:7007; and (3) immediately opens a mkfifo/nc reverse shell to the same 185.112.147.174:7007 endpoint, giving the operator interactive shell access. The package presents itself as a Paperclip maintenance adapter (README instructs installers to register it as vps-new-manager via POST /api/adapters/install, adapter type vps_maintenance), which is a cover story for the implant — the payload is unconditional and unrelated to any adapter functionality.

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

2 flagged

0.1.00.1.1

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

110b8556d612185c2c6ea84731898d4f23f04658556e1ff22852f953b956e43a

f1bd499e6bf54539cafac021d6389fbb6684b7b91795b7ab5340fd4f8840a4f0

da5dcc405a10775ace9fab68ee0a5ddf9bcad770d29e20f999df6d41072e46b1

Detection & response playbook

Backdoor / remote access

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for vps-maintenance (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging vps-maintenance across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
vps-maintenance 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 vps-maintenance 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 vps-maintenance 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

No. vps-maintenance on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 0.1.0, 0.1.1 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-007956GHSA-qc5h-v3rf-5x95IN-MAL-2026-008056

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks vps-maintenance-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

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