Malicious Code Injection in Nutritional Weasel Z3N Package
Summary
MAL-2025-98840: Malicious code in nutritious_weasel_z3n (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
The 'nutritious_weasel_z3n' package is part of the npm ecosystem and is associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign. This package is designed to facilitate the automatic generation and publication of derivative packages, which can inflate developer reputation scores for token rewards. However, it has been compromised to include malicious scripts that manipulate package metadata.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability in the 'nutritious_weasel_z3n' package stems from its inclusion in a campaign that floods the npm registry with malicious packages. These packages contain scripts that modify the package.json file to remove private flags, alter version numbers, and generate random package names. This behavior not only pollutes the npm registry but also poses a risk to developers who may unknowingly install these compromised packages, leading to potential security breaches in their applications.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall nutritious_weasel_z3nIf it arrived as a transitive dependency, remove the package that pulled it in, then reinstall.
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Workaround
As a temporary workaround, you can avoid using the 'nutritious_weasel_z3n' package altogether. If it is already installed, you can remove it by executing the following command in your terminal: npm uninstall nutritious_weasel_z3n.
Conclusion
The 'nutritious_weasel_z3n' package has been identified as containing malicious code that can compromise the integrity of applications using it. It is crucial to remove this package and monitor your dependencies for vulnerabilities to ensure the security of your projects.
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FAQ
It is an npm package that is part of a token reward campaign but has been compromised to include malicious code.
The malicious code can alter your package metadata and potentially lead to security risks if the compromised package is used in your application.
You should uninstall the 'nutritious_weasel_z3n' package immediately to mitigate any risks.
Yes, you can use tools like Vulert, which monitors your package-lock.json for open-source vulnerabilities in real-time.
You can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check if your application is affected without needing to sign up.
