Axios Compromised on npm: Malicious Versions Drop Remote Access Trojan

On March 30, 2026, a threat actor compromised the npm account of a lead axios maintainer and published two malicious versions—axios@1.14.1 and axios@0.30.4—injecting a hidden dependency called plain-crypto-js@4.2.1. This dependency never appears in axios source code and exists solely to execute a postinstall script that drops a cross-platform remote access trojan (RAT) targeting macOS, Windows, and Linux. The attacker pre-staged the malicious package 18 hours earlier with a decoy version to evade detection, then published both axios releases within 39 minutes. The RAT dropper contacts a command-and-control server at sfrclak.com:8000, delivers platform-specific second-stage payloads, then self-deletes and replaces its own package.json with a clean stub to hide forensic evidence. The malicious versions were live for approximately three hours before npm unpublishing. Detection came from StepSecurity’s AI Package Analyst and Harden-Runner, which flagged anomalous outbound connections in CI/CD pipelines across multiple open source projects. The post provides complete indicators of compromise, recovery steps for code repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and developer machines, and defense recommendations including release-age gating and --ignore-scripts in CI environments. 

https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/axios-compromised-on-npm-malicious-versions-drop-remote-access-trojan

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