Malicious code in color-convert-helper (npm)
The npm package color-convert-helper contained malicious code in its postinstall.js script that harvested cloud credentials, IAM tokens, and environment variables from infected systems, then exfiltrated the data to an attacker-controlled OAST domain. The package also performed internal network reconnaissance.
- Disclosed
- Last updated
- Blast radius
- Any developer or CI/CD system that installed color-convert-helper from npm
- Ecosystems
- Attack vectors
- Affected entities
- color-convert-helpernpm package containing malicious postinstall.js script
The npm package color-convert-helper was found to contain malicious code disguised as a color conversion utility. Upon installation, the package's postinstall.js script automatically executed a shell pipeline that collected sensitive host and environment information.
The malicious script gathered system identity data (hostname, current user, user ID, sudo privileges, OS information), CI/CD environment variables (GitHub Actions, etc.), network interface details, running processes, and environment variables containing credentials or secrets (filtered by keywords: KEY, TOKEN, SECRET, CREDENTIAL, NPM, AZURE, GCP, CLOUD).
The script then queried cloud instance-metadata endpoints for AWS, Aliyun, GCP, and Tencent at 169.254.169.254 to retrieve IAM security credentials. All collected data was base64-encoded and exfiltrated via curl to the attacker-controlled OAST domain pzs5w7ntzhsnepwk564lyfdci3oucl0a.oastify.com. Additionally, the script performed DNS and HTTP probes against an internal hostname (tst.woa.com) and issued SSRF forwarder requests to probe internal network perimeters.
The package was identified by Amazon Inspector and credited to the OpenSSF malicious-packages repository.
Indicators of compromise
- Packages
- color-convert-helper
- Domains
- pzs5w7ntzhsnepwk564lyfdci3oucl0a.oastify.com
- tst.woa.com
Remediation
- Immediately uninstall color-convert-helper from all systems and CI/CD pipelines
- Rotate all cloud credentials, API keys, and authentication tokens that may have been exposed
- Review CI/CD logs and environment variable access for the affected systems
- Audit network traffic from installation hosts for connections to pzs5w7ntzhsnepwk564lyfdci3oucl0a.oastify.com
- Implement package verification and scanning in npm dependency management
- Use npm audit and supply chain security tools to detect similar malicious packages
Sources
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-4682-ww49-563f · GitHub Advisory Database
Cite this entry
"Malicious code in color-convert-helper (npm)." supplychainattack.org, Supply Chain Attack Incident Catalog. Disclosed July 28, 2026; last updated July 28, 2026. https://supplychainattack.org/incident/malicious-code-in-color-convert-helper-npm-1p7qwc
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