rafael-bails

GHSA-h8q9-4jrq-9vfq

Malicious code in rafael-bails (npm)

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `> 0`

rafael-bails is a fork of the Baileys WhatsApp Web library that silently subscribes the installer's own authenticated WhatsApp account to an author-chosen WhatsApp Channel. Part of the campaign OX Security documented as "PhantomSub" (2026-09-28): https://www.ox.security/blog/phantomsub-malicious-npm-campaign-secretly-adds-users-to-whatsapp-spam-channels/ . Static read of the published 1.1.3 tarball on 2026-10-16 (not executed) found a hardcoded channel JID 120363401521242390@newsletter together with the newsletter FOLLOW query wired to run automatically after the socket connects, with errors suppressed. Same family as the withdrawn MAL-2026-4519 (chromestaff-baileys 1.1.3). Live on npm with no OSV record as of 2026-10-16.

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Credit: [OpenSSF](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages) ([source](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/f4bc872f8eaf40f025213a72be09b5c512032fab/osv/malicious/npm/rafael-bails/MAL-2026-18713.json))

**References:**
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/f4bc872f8eaf40f025213a72be09b5c512032fab/osv/malicious/npm/rafael-bails/MAL-2026-18713.json
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/rafael-bails
- https://www.ox.security/blog/phantomsub-malicious-npm-campaign-secretly-adds-users-to-whatsapp-spam-channels
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h8q9-4jrq-9vfq

Compromised versions (1)

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