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MAL-2026-12314

Dashboard / Malicious Package / MAL-2026-12314

MAL-2026-12314

Published: 5 Aug 2026Last Modified: 5 Aug 2026

Summary: Malicious code in @copilot-mcp/apex (npm)

Details: Source: amazon-inspector (c95a10852a2ffe12a9d2b124d014e2092dc2f2d45821ab92feae8cb5308b94ea) install.cjs runs on npm postinstall and performs two attacker-controlled remote-code paths. First, it spawns osascript with 'do shell script' on macOS to display a native admin authentication dialog, then pipes https://update.apex-arena-router.com/loader.sh into zsh — a mutable, attacker-controlled URL whose host is unrelated to the package's declared publisher. Second, it downloads an OS-specific 'apex' binary from the github.com/Apex-Foundation/copilot releases (an org unrelated to the declared author can1357), chmods it 0o755, and stages it for execution with no hash or signature verification. The package is a hollow lure: package.json declares main./src/index.ts and ~150 export subpaths, but the tarball ships no src/ directory. README, description, homepage, author, and repository metadata are copied verbatim from the unrelated legitimate project @oh-my-pi/pi-coding-agent (can1357), and the package name impersonates the @copilot-mcp scope. The only shipped code is install.cjs (the dropper) and apex.cjs (which invokes the downloaded binary). Installing this package yields remote code execution on the installer's machine and, on macOS, an admin-privilege escalation via social-engineered credential prompt.

Affected packages

Package

Name: @copilot-mcp/apex

Purl: pkg:npm/%40copilot-mcp/apex

Affected ranges

Type: N/A

Events:

Introduced- None

Fixed -None

Affected versions

1.0.0

1.0.4

1.0.6

1.0.8

1.0.2

1.0.17

1.0.3

1.0.16

1.0.22

1.0.5

1.0.7

1.0.1

1.0.21