Malicious Code Injection in tealove-lady5: npm Package Vulnerability
Summary
MAL-2025-168358: Malicious code in tealove-lady5 (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
The tealove-lady5 package is part of the tea.xyz token reward campaign, which has been known to flood the npm ecosystem with malicious packages. These packages are designed to inflate developer reputation scores by automatically generating and publishing derivative packages with randomized names. The presence of such packages poses a significant risk to developers and users relying on npm for secure package management.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability in tealove-lady5 originates from its design to include autopublish scripts that modify the package.json file. This modification removes private flags, alters version numbers, and generates random package names, leading to the continuous republishing of variants that pollute the npm registry. The malicious payload can compromise the integrity of the npm ecosystem and potentially introduce security risks to applications that depend on these packages.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall tealove-lady5If 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 prevent the installation of the tealove-lady5 package by using npm's package-lock.json to monitor your dependencies. You can also use the following command to uninstall the package: npm uninstall tealove-lady5.
Conclusion
The tealove-lady5 package poses a significant security risk due to its malicious code designed to manipulate npm package management. It is crucial for developers to remove this package and monitor their dependencies for vulnerabilities to maintain the integrity of their applications.
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FAQ
tealove-lady5 is an npm package that is part of a campaign to inflate developer reputation scores through the automatic generation of derivative packages.
The vulnerability can lead to the introduction of malicious code into your application, potentially compromising its security and integrity.
You should uninstall the package immediately and monitor your project for any unusual behavior or security issues.
Yes, you can use tools like Vulert, which monitors your package-lock.json for open-source vulnerabilities in real-time without requiring code access.
You can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check if your application is affected by this vulnerability without any signup.
