Which versions of web-advertising are malicious?

The following npm versions of web-advertising are flagged malicious: 999.9.15, 999.9.16. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate web-advertising if I installed it?

web-advertising 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.

I already installed web-advertising — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If web-advertising 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 web-advertising part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — web-advertising is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-018628, IN-MAL-2026-018629 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 web-advertising across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for web-advertising (2 malicious versions).

Malicious package

web-advertisingnpm

Advisory published Aug 24, 2026Updated Aug 24, 2026

web-advertising is a confirmed malicious npm package (MAL-2026-14440) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious versions 999.9.15, 999.9.16). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in web-advertising (npm)

MAL-2026-14440

Immediate action

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

npm uninstall web-advertising

What this malware does

[email protected] declares scripts.preinstall = 'node index.js', so index.js executes automatically on npm install. The script collects hostname, username, home directory, local/public/resolver IP addresses, CI environment identifiers (GITHUB_REPOSITORY, GITHUB_ACTOR, CI_PROJECT_PATH, AWS_REGION), the parent project's package.json name/author/repo, and authenticated developer identities obtained by shelling out to gh api user --jq.login, npm whoami, and git config user.email. The collected JSON is hex-encoded, split into 60-character chunks, and exfiltrated via DNS subdomain queries to da51rv0hb2uc72tg4gvgdepinjcallbk1.oast.fun and via HTTPS/HTTP POST to the same callback host. The package name plus 999.9.16 versioning and the OAST callback are consistent with a dependency-confusion beacon. The README's self-description as authorised research does not change the observed behavior: installer host, CI, and identity data leave the machine to an author-controlled third-party callback with no installer consent, and DNS tunneling is used to bypass egress filtering.

Malicious versions

2 flagged

999.9.15999.9.16

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

a6fb813ae0ff5bda702a6717b2f648ce16b4603550a9c5b864536f775eaf337c

bc7c0c1f060691740d5149c61d74f3ddd8f6e10107c7621d700ae0819a1e2237

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for web-advertising (2 malicious versions).
If you installed it — respond
web-advertising 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 web-advertising 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. web-advertising on npm has been identified as a malicious package (versions 999.9.15, 999.9.16 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-018628IN-MAL-2026-018629

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks web-advertising-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database