Skip to content

Malicious code in boring-vault (npm)

Malware Published Aug 12, 2026 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Aug 12, 2026

Package

npm boring-vault (npm)

Affected versions

> 0

Patched versions

None

Description

boring-vault is a malicious npm package that impersonates the BoringVault smart-contract framework. It carries no legitimate functionality; the published tarball contains only a package.json and an install-time payload (index.js). Both preinstall and postinstall run node index.js || true, so the code executes automatically when the package is installed.

Version 1.0.0 harvests environment variables whose names match KEY|TOKEN|SECRET|PASS|PRIVATE|MNEMONIC|RPC|AWS|GITHUB|NPM|KUBE|VAULT|AUTH|PGP|GPG|SEED|WALLET, the contents of ~/.npmrc and ~/.gitconfig, and directory listings of ~/.ssh, ~/.foundry/keystores, ~/.config/hardhat, and ~/.config/gcloud, along with the hostname, username, working directory, and platform. The collected JSON is exfiltrated via an HTTPS POST to https://webhook.site/326b0891-2093-4800-a4c1-686ce3e07b09. Errors are swallowed so the install never visibly fails.

Version 1.1.0, published roughly 2.5 hours after 1.0.0 for all six packages within the same ~9-second window, reads full file contents (up to 4000 bytes) instead of just listing them. New targets include .aws/credentials, .aws/config, .ssh/id_rsa, .ssh/id_ed25519, .ssh/config, .kube/config, .docker/config.json, .netrc, .pgpass, .pypirc, .git-credentials, and two GCP credential files (application_default_credentials.json and legacy_credentials) — the ~/.config/gcloud directory listing is still collected too. It also reads local .env, .env.local, .env.production, .env.development, and secrets.env files from the working directory, and adds cryptocurrency wallet theft: key files from Solana, Anchor, NEAR, and Sui wallet paths, plus the first three files under ~/.foundry/keystores. The credential regex gains BEARER, API, INFURA, ALCHEMY, HELIUS, QUICKNODE, ANKR, and PRIVATE_KEY to catch RPC and API provider tokens. Both versions exfiltrate to the same webhook.site endpoint.

In 1.0.0, index.js opens with a fake comment claiming it is @plumenetwork/nest-artifacts, an unrelated install-time shim — @plumenetwork/nest-artifacts is not itself a malicious package, just a leftover label from whatever template the attacker reused across this batch, published by npm account mssjeep843. The fake comment was removed in 1.1.0. Five sibling packages from the same account impersonate Euler's EVC, Aerodrome Finance, Camelot AMM, and the BoringVault pattern, sharing this same webhook.site endpoint, byte-identical payload template, and 1.0.0-to-1.1.0 escalation. Two further packages from the same account (PyPI dlmm and dlmm-sdk, impersonating Meteora's DLMM SDK) ran an equivalent harvester and are tracked separately as MAL-2026-13728 and MAL-2026-13729.

Any environment that installed either version should rotate the exposed secrets and treat harvested keys as compromised, prioritizing wallet private keys and RPC/API tokens if 1.1.0 was installed.


Credit: OpenSSF (source)

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 12, 2026
Reviewed Aug 12, 2026
Last updated Aug 12, 2026

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Embedded Malicious Code

The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature. Learn more on MITRE.

GHSA ID

GHSA-2hm3-fxxw-fwgw

Source code

No known source code
Improvements are not currently accepted on this advisory because this package is malware and has no patched versions. If there is something to change, please open an issue at https://github.com/github/advisory-database/issues.