hardhat-init

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 2.21.0`

## Source: amazon-inspector (e2f570102756d04aa466677488cd13aacac2eb941176523bc4ff024d214affbb)
The npm package hardhat-init presents itself as Hardhat initialization tooling and ships a README, LICENSE, and index.d.ts copied from the pino logger project with the name substituted. The main entry index.js requires./lib/config at the top level, which triggers a ~4.3MB heavily obfuscated JavaScript file (lib/config.js) whose top-level IIFE executes immediately on module load. The obfuscation uses hex-escaped string tables, nested index-lookup helpers, and a string-array shuffler consistent with obfuscator.io output, with no plaintext surface describing the behavior. The exported index.js is a trivial no-op that does not consume anything from lib/config, so the sole effect of loading the package is to execute the opaque payload. The combination of a name/content mismatch (hardhat-init vs. copied pino scaffolding), an oversized obfuscated sibling file with no legitimate purpose for an init helper, and auto-execution on require is a typosquat loader shape that causes arbitrary attacker-controlled code to run on the installer's machine the first time any consumer imports the package.

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Credit: [OpenSSF](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages) ([source](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/14c4b0d2ac1655e4da51a1bb54999365882bb540/osv/malicious/npm/hardhat-init/MAL-2026-17636.json))

**References:**
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/14c4b0d2ac1655e4da51a1bb54999365882bb540/osv/malicious/npm/hardhat-init/MAL-2026-17636.json
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/hardhat-init/v/2.21.0
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-w6mp-phr7-c2v5

Compromised versions (1)

• = 2.21.0

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