🛡️ MAL-2026-6948 — runtimedev-link

Malicious code in runtimedev-link (npm)

Source: amazon-inspector

The package presents itself as "Pure Node.js telemetry for RuntimeDev platform" but implements a full remote-access trojan. The runtimedev-link bin, when invoked with a --token that encodes an apiBase and hash, enters a command loop that polls POST /api/telemetry/poll-command at the operator-supplied base URL and executes any returned command string through /bin/sh (or the Windows shell) via execSync, returning stdout/stderr to /api/telemetry/command-result (transport.js). The same agent handles server-issued directoryScan and downloadRequest operations, zipping arbitrary filesystem paths and uploading them base64-encoded to /api/telemetry/upload-download; every telemetry cycle reports hostname, username, OS info, home-directory tree, Chrome/Edge/Brave extension inventories, and the host's public IP fetched from api.ipify.org. On first run the agent installs cross-platform persistence: a Windows Task Scheduler entry marked <Hidden>true</Hidden> with a LogonTrigger launched via wscript.exe //B against a generated VBS; a macOS LaunchAgent plist with RunAtLoad + KeepAlive; a Linux systemd --user unit with Restart=always plus loginctl enable-linger, falling back to crontab @reboot or XDG autostart. Credentials are staged at ~/.config/runtimedev-link/agent.env. To further evade endpoint visibility, lib/portable_runtime.js downloads a standalone Node.js 22.22.0 tarball from nodejs.org, extracts it into ~/.local/share/runtimedev-link/runtime/, chmods bin/node to 0755, and configures persistence to invoke that private interpreter against a copied agent CLI, decoupling ongoing execution from the user's Node/npm. The exfil/C2 destinations are configurable per token, so any attacker distributing a token targets their own infrastructure; the code paths themselves are unambiguously RAT machinery.

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.