Malicious Code Injection in msband-devapptea: A Threat to npm Ecosystem
Summary
MAL-2025-105988: Malicious code in msband-devapptea (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
msband-devapptea is a package within the npm ecosystem, primarily associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign. This package is designed to facilitate token rewards for developers by generating and publishing derivative packages. However, it has been identified as containing malicious code that compromises the integrity of the npm registry.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability originates from the msband-devapptea package, which includes scripts that automatically modify package.json files to remove private flags, alter version numbers, and generate random package names. This behavior leads to the continuous republishing of these variants, effectively polluting the npm registry and inflating developer reputation scores fraudulently. The malicious payload poses significant risks, including the potential for dependency confusion and the introduction of further vulnerabilities into projects that rely on these packages.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall msband-devappteaIf it arrived as a transitive dependency, remove the package that pulled it in, then reinstall.
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Workaround
As a temporary measure, you can prevent the installation of this malicious package by using npm's package-lock.json file to lock your dependencies. Additionally, consider using a tool like Vulert to monitor your dependencies for vulnerabilities. You can check if your application is affected by this vulnerability using the Vulert playground at https://vulert.com/scanner without any signup.
Conclusion
The msband-devapptea package poses a significant risk due to its malicious code that alters package metadata and floods the npm registry. It is essential to remove this package from your projects and monitor your dependencies for any vulnerabilities to maintain the security of your applications.
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FAQ
msband-devapptea is an npm package associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign, designed to generate and publish derivative packages.
The vulnerability can lead to the introduction of malicious code into your project, potentially compromising its security and integrity.
You should uninstall the package immediately using 'npm uninstall msband-devapptea' and check your package-lock.json for any references to it.
Yes, you can use Vulert, which monitors your package-lock.json file for vulnerabilities in real-time without requiring code access or installation.
Absolutely! You can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check for vulnerabilities in your application without any signup.
