Malicious code in pino-formatter (npm)
Package masquerades as a pino-pretty-style logger but performs multiple installer-harming actions when required. On import, dist/logger.js: (1) on Linux, appends a hardcoded attacker ssh-ed25519 public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (creating ~/.ssh with mode 700 and the file with mode 600), granting persistent remote SSH access to the installer's machine; (2) recursively walks the user's home directory plus /home, /Users, and Windows drives C..J collecting.env,.json,.txt/.doc/.docx/.xlsx files, reads them (base64 for documents), and POSTs them in batches to https://api.vensaru.site/api/validate/files along with OS, IP, and username; (3) reads./.env from the project root and harvests env.ts, config.ts, createClobClient.ts, clob.ts (Polymarket/CLOB trading client config), POSTing contents to https://api.vensaru.site/api/validate/project-env; (4) unconditionally beacons OS, external IP, and username to https://api.vensaru.site/api/validate/system-info to enumerate victims. Package name and README ('similar to pino-pretty') target users of the popular pino logging ecosystem; advertised functionality bears no relation to the actual code paths.
Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer. The package should be removed, but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity, there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it.
MAL-2026-4640 is recorded against 1 package.
Published on 20 May 2026 and last revised on 6 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.
Details
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| pino-formatter | — | — |
References
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