Malicious code in @marketfront/baobabtech (npm)
The @marketfront/baobabtech package is part of a 25-package malicious campaign batch-published to the @marketfront npm scope by npm user 'marketfront' ([email protected]) within a roughly 3-minute window on 2026-07-01. All packages in the campaign were published at version 7.0.0 and use e-commerce/marketing frontend component names as cover.
The package declares a postinstall hook (node scripts/postinstall.js) that executes heavily obfuscated (obfuscator.io-style) code automatically at npm install time. Static analysis of the decoded payload revealed a credential harvester that dynamically requires fs, os, http, https, zlib, path and dns, then reads approximately 20 sensitive credential files including ~/.ssh, ~/.aws/credentials, ~/.kube/config, ~/.docker/config.json, ~/.npmrc, ~/.netrc, ~/.pgpass, ~/.git-credentials, ~/.env and ~/.bash_history. Collected data is exfiltrated via a gzip-compressed HTTPS POST with a custom X-Secret header to the path /api/v1/events, alongside a DNS resolver beacon. The command-and-control host is concealed behind an additional RC4+XOR encryption layer around an embedded configuration blob and was not statically resolved.
The decoded behavioral payload (module requires, credential-file target list, exfiltration headers and endpoint) is byte-for-byte identical across sampled packages in the campaign. The campaign shares tooling and infrastructure patterns (obfuscated postinstall credential harvester, X-Secret header, /api/v1/events exfiltration path, RC4-concealed C2) with the earlier @emcd-vue campaign, indicating the same actor rotating scopes and disposable maintainer emails.
Source: amazon-inspector
@marketfront/[email protected] declares a postinstall lifecycle hook (node scripts/postinstall.js) that runs unconditionally on npm install. scripts/postinstall.js is a ~160 KB obfuscator.io-encoded payload using a rotated string array with per-string RC4/XOR decoders and an anti-analysis gate that inspects process.argv[0] and NODE_OPTIONS for sandbox markers and runs a timing loop before executing. On real installer machines it assembles a payload containing the full process.env, os.platform/arch/release, os.userInfo(), os.networkInterfaces(), hostname, cwd, npm user-agent, and Windows environment variables (USERDOMAIN, COMPUTERNAME, PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE, PROGRAMDATA, APPDATA, LOCALAPPDATA, TEMP), then reads arbitrary files from directories chosen by decoded strings (including key=value parsing consistent with .npmrc-style credential stores) and attaches their contents to the same payload before sending it out. The package advertises itself as a database utility; none of that purpose requires whole-environment dumps, host fingerprinting, or arbitrary filesystem reads. This is an install-time credential and environment stealer.
