@marketfront/devtoolsloader

GHSA-jmvw-cx73-j72x

Malicious code in @marketfront/devtoolsloader (npm)

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 7.0.0`

The @marketfront/devtoolsloader package is part of a 25-package malicious campaign batch-published to the @marketfront npm scope by npm user 'marketfront' ([email protected]) within a roughly 3-minute window on 2026-07-01. All packages in the campaign were published at version 7.0.0 and use e-commerce/marketing frontend component names as cover.

The package declares a postinstall hook (node scripts/postinstall.js) that executes heavily obfuscated (obfuscator.io-style) code automatically at npm install time. Static analysis of the decoded payload revealed a credential harvester that dynamically requires fs, os, http, https, zlib, path and dns, then reads approximately 20 sensitive credential files including ~/.ssh, ~/.aws/credentials, ~/.kube/config, ~/.docker/config.json, ~/.npmrc, ~/.netrc, ~/.pgpass, ~/.git-credentials, ~/.env and ~/.bash_history. Collected data is exfiltrated via a gzip-compressed HTTPS POST with a custom X-Secret header to the path /api/v1/events, alongside a DNS resolver beacon. The command-and-control host is concealed behind an additional RC4+XOR encryption layer around an embedded configuration blob and was not statically resolved.

The decoded behavioral payload (module requires, credential-file target list, exfiltration headers and endpoint) is byte-for-byte identical across sampled packages in the campaign. The campaign shares tooling and infrastructure patterns (obfuscated postinstall credential harvester, X-Secret header, /api/v1/events exfiltration path, RC4-concealed C2) with the earlier @emcd-vue campaign, indicating the same actor rotating scopes and disposable maintainer emails.## Source: amazon-inspector (d449d3db7f73a80417996b67687dca9330bf5d0591233c639416a4f2e2b7eb22)
The package ships a heavily obfuscated postinstall script (scripts/postinstall.js, ~161 KB, obfuscator.io RC4 string-array with control-flow flattening) invoked from package.json ("postinstall": "node scripts/postinstall.js"). At npm install time the script collects host identifiers (os.userInfo(), os.ne […]

**References:**
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/7a608ed15d836e95716bf408b91f8fdc272bbcb9/osv/malicious/npm/@marketfront/devtoolsloader/MAL-2026-6774.json
- https://safedep.io/marketfront-dependency-confusion-campaign
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/@marketfront/devtoolsloader/v/7.0.0
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jmvw-cx73-j72x

Compromised versions (1)

= 7.0.0

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