MAL-2026-17512

    Dashboard / Malicious Package / MAL-2026-17512

    MAL-2026-17512

    Published: 4 Oct 2026Last Modified: 4 Oct 2026

    Summary: Malicious code in lite-matte (npm)

    Details: Source: amazon-inspector (4e7b0ae9e42c334c1c22627e60add7a2c5a0d558a2ab65a3af0043e27bb0e686) package.json declares `"postinstall": "wscript.exe 4444.vbs"`, causing `npm install` to auto-execute a ~765KB Windows Script Host file shipped in the tarball. 4444.vbs is heavily obfuscated: it reconstructs COM ProgIDs (ADODB.Stream, MSXML2.XMLHTTP) at runtime via a Chr/XOR helper, uses XOR-masked hex tables for AES S-boxes and SHA-256 round constants, and stores its real payload as ~700 Base64-shaped chunks in an `ArtifactBundleHX` array decrypted through AES-256-CBC followed by ChaCha20-IETF. The decrypted PowerShell loader is written to `%TEMP%` and handed off to powershell.exe with comments indicating process hollowing. The declared package purpose (a trivial 60-line zod-based email domain checker at src/index.js) is unrelated to the dropper, and the README explicitly states 'No installation scripts. No network requests.' while the manifest ships exactly that. Header cover story labels the script 'Verdant Signals Corp. Device Telemetry Aggregator'.

    References: https://www.npmjs.com/package/lite-matte/v/1.0.0

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: lite-matte

    Purl: pkg:npm/lite-matte

    Affected ranges

    Type: N/A

    Events:

    Introduced- None
    Fixed -None

    Affected versions

    1.0.0