Malicious Code Injection in rino-poke14: A Threat to npm Ecosystem
Summary
MAL-2025-164657: Malicious code in rino-poke14 (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
rino-poke14 is an npm package that is part of the tea.xyz token reward campaign. This package is designed to facilitate the distribution of token rewards through various npm packages. However, it has been identified as containing malicious code that can compromise the integrity of the npm registry and the applications that depend on it.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability in rino-poke14 originates from its malicious payload, which modifies the package.json file to remove private flags, alters version numbers, and generates random package names. This behavior is intended to inflate developer reputation scores for the tea protocol token rewards. The continuous republishing of these modified packages can lead to pollution of the npm registry, making it difficult for developers to find legitimate packages and potentially introducing security risks into their applications.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall rino-poke14If 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 rino-poke14 package and look for alternative packages that provide similar functionality without the associated risks. Additionally, you can monitor your dependencies using tools like Vulert, which can alert you to vulnerabilities in your open-source packages.
Conclusion
The rino-poke14 package poses a significant threat to the npm ecosystem due to its malicious code that alters package metadata and inflates developer reputation scores. It is crucial for developers to remove this package from their projects and monitor their dependencies for vulnerabilities to maintain the integrity of their applications.
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FAQ
rino-poke14 is an npm package involved in the tea.xyz token reward campaign, which has been identified to contain malicious code.
The package modifies package.json files, removes private flags, and generates random package names to inflate developer reputation scores.
You can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check if your application is affected by this vulnerability without needing to sign up.
You should uninstall the rino-poke14 package immediately using 'npm uninstall rino-poke14' and check your project for any other affected packages.
Yes, you can use Vulert, which monitors your package-lock.json file to alert you in real-time for open-source vulnerabilities in your software.
