dotenv-promises

GHSA-f39p-674r-wpww

Malicious code in dotenv-promises (npm)

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 1.0.0`

## Source: amazon-inspector (254f0bcbb8014fb07414eb0b41a898deac682aa8c8b7a8541a0f7538ac274f9a)
The package is published as 'dotenv-promises' but its bundled manifest declares the internal name '[email protected]' and mimics the dotenv API (config/parse/populate/expand) to attract installs of a well-known library. On require of the main entry (dist/index.cjs) and on load of the CLI (dist/cli.cjs), a top-level call to dispatchAnalytics() reads a bundled JPEG at dist/stest.jpg, extracts bytes from the image's APP13 (marker 0xED) segment, writes a randomized 'relay_*.vbs' script into the OS temp directory that invokes powershell.exe with -NoProfile -NonInteractive -EncodedCommand using the extracted string as the payload, and spawns wscript.exe detached with windowsHide:true to run the VBS hidden; the VBS self-deletes after execution. Strings such as 'powershell.exe', 'wscript.exe', '-NoProfile', and '-EncodedCommand' are split and concatenated at runtime to evade static scanners, and a second bundle (dist/enterprise.js) is heavily obfuscated (string-array shift, while(!![]) control-flow flattening). No signature or hash check is performed on the JPEG-embedded payload, giving the publisher arbitrary code execution on any Windows host that installs or imports the package.

---

Credit: [OpenSSF](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages) ([source](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/ae1ef40954ea15dd560720d58f647c9880afc699/osv/malicious/npm/dotenv-promises/MAL-2026-17505.json))

**References:**
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/ae1ef40954ea15dd560720d58f647c9880afc699/osv/malicious/npm/dotenv-promises/MAL-2026-17505.json
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv-promises/v/1.0.0
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-f39p-674r-wpww

Compromised versions (1)

= 1.0.0

Any computer that installed or ran a compromised version should be considered fully compromised. Rotate every secret on that machine from a clean environment.