Malicious Code Injection in Substantial Donkey Z3N Package - npm Vulnerability
Summary
MAL-2025-109237: Malicious code in substantial_donkey_z3n (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
The Substantial Donkey Z3N package is part of the npm ecosystem, often used for various JavaScript applications. It is associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign, which has been known to flood the npm registry with malicious packages. This package, like others in the campaign, is designed to manipulate developer reputation scores through automated publishing scripts.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability in the Substantial Donkey Z3N package originates from its inclusion in a malicious campaign that modifies the package.json file to remove private flags, alters version numbers, and generates random package names. This behavior leads to the continuous republishing of variants, polluting the npm registry and potentially compromising the integrity of applications that depend on this package.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall substantial_donkey_z3n
If 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 Substantial Donkey Z3N package and replace it with a trusted alternative. Additionally, you can monitor your package dependencies using tools like Vulert, which can alert you to vulnerabilities in real-time without requiring code access or installation.
Conclusion
The Substantial Donkey Z3N package poses a significant risk due to its malicious code injection capabilities. It is crucial for developers to remove this package and monitor their dependencies for vulnerabilities to maintain the security and integrity of their applications.
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FAQ
It is an npm package associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign, often used in JavaScript applications.
The vulnerability can lead to the pollution of the npm registry and compromise the integrity of your application by introducing malicious code.
You should remove the Substantial Donkey Z3N package from your project and monitor for any updates or patches.
You can use tools like Vulert, which allows you to monitor and alert for open-source vulnerabilities in real-time using just your package-lock.json.
Yes, you can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check for vulnerabilities in your application without any signup.