Malicious Code Injection in melodic_butterfly-smiletea Package
Summary
MAL-2025-105771: Malicious code in melodic_butterfly-smiletea (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
The melodic_butterfly-smiletea package is part of the npm ecosystem and is associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign. This package is designed to facilitate the generation and publication of derivative packages, often with randomized names, to inflate developer reputation scores for token rewards. However, it has been identified as containing malicious code that compromises the integrity of the npm registry.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability in the melodic_butterfly-smiletea package originates from its malicious payload, which modifies the package.json file to remove private flags and alters version numbers. It generates random package names, primarily themed around Indonesian culture, and continuously republishes these variants to pollute the npm registry. This behavior can lead to security risks for developers and users relying on the npm ecosystem, as it undermines the trustworthiness of package management.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall melodic_butterfly-smileteaIf it arrived as a transitive dependency, remove the package that pulled it in, then reinstall.
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Workaround
As a workaround, you can temporarily avoid using the melodic_butterfly-smiletea package by removing it from your dependencies and replacing it with a trusted alternative package that provides similar functionality.
Conclusion
The melodic_butterfly-smiletea package has been identified as containing malicious code that poses a significant risk to the npm ecosystem. It is crucial for developers to remove this package and monitor their projects for vulnerabilities to maintain security and integrity.
See every vulnerability recorded for melodic_butterfly-smiletea →
FAQ
It is an npm package associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign, designed to publish derivative packages.
The vulnerability can compromise the integrity of your project by introducing malicious code and altering package management behavior.
You should uninstall the melodic_butterfly-smiletea package immediately and check for any dependencies that may be affected.
Yes, you can use Vulert, which monitors and alerts for open-source vulnerabilities in real-time using just your package-lock.json file.
Yes, you can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check for vulnerabilities in your application without any signup.
