Malicious Code Vulnerability in weak_catfish-smiletea Package
Summary
MAL-2025-110763: Malicious code in weak_catfish-smiletea (npm). Affected versions are not published. No fix is published. How to fix ↓
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Background
The weak_catfish-smiletea package is part of a series of npm packages associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign. These packages are designed to inflate developer reputation scores by automatically generating and publishing derivative packages with randomized names. The functionality of these packages is compromised due to the presence of malicious scripts that alter package metadata and publish harmful variants to the npm registry.
Vulnerability Detail
The vulnerability originates from the malicious design of the weak_catfish-smiletea package, which includes scripts that modify the package.json file to remove private flags, change version numbers, and generate random package names. This results in the continuous republishing of variants that pollute the npm registry, potentially leading to security risks for developers who unknowingly use these packages. The malicious payload can compromise the integrity of applications relying on this package, leading to unauthorized access or data manipulation.
How To Fix
This package is malicious. Remove it and rotate any credentials it could have accessed.
npm uninstall weak_catfish-smileteaIf it arrived as a transitive dependency, remove the package that pulled it in, then reinstall.
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Workaround
As a workaround, you can manually check your package-lock.json file for any instances of weak_catfish-smiletea and remove it. You can use the following command to uninstall the package: npm uninstall weak_catfish-smiletea.
Conclusion
The weak_catfish-smiletea package contains malicious code that poses significant security risks to applications using it. It is crucial to remove this package and monitor your projects for similar vulnerabilities using tools like Vulert.
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FAQ
It is an npm package associated with the tea.xyz token reward campaign, designed to inflate developer reputation scores.
The vulnerability can lead to unauthorized modifications in your application, potentially compromising its security and integrity.
You should remove the weak_catfish-smiletea package from your project immediately to mitigate any risks.
Yes, you can use Vulert, which monitors and alerts in real-time for open-source vulnerabilities using just your package-lock.json file.
You can use the Vulert playground at Vulert Scanner to check for vulnerabilities without any signup.
