MAL-2026-4455

    Dashboard / Malicious Package / MAL-2026-4455

    MAL-2026-4455

    Published: 22 May 2026Last Modified: 27 May 2026

    Summary: Malicious code in @thebros/create-benjamin (npm)

    Details: Source: amazon-inspector (53fb816939bb505cdabc374418983428298b09a29e5789033943301642b8b156) The package tarball ships a `.env` file containing a live-looking OpenAI API key (`OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...`). The CLI entry point `bin/index.js` calls `import "dotenv/config"` at line 3, which auto-loads that `.env` from the package directory at startup. At line 13 the key is read via `process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY`. Two installer-affecting consequences result: (1) the author's third-party API credential is redistributed to every installer of the package, who can extract it from the tarball and abuse it against OpenAI under the author's account; (2) when a user runs `create-benjamin` without setting their own `OPENAI_API_KEY`, their project-description prompt is silently sent to OpenAI billed against the author's account, with no disclosure that a hardcoded key is in use. The key should be revoked, removed from the published tarball, and the CLI should require the user to provide their own key.

    References: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@thebros/create-benjamin/v/1.0.12

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: @thebros/create-benjamin

    Purl: pkg:npm/%40thebros%2Fcreate-benjamin

    Affected ranges

    Type: N/A

    Events:

    Introduced- None
    Fixed -None

    Affected versions

    1.0.12
    MAL-2026-4455 | CVE-DB