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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released this Alert to provide guidance in response to a widespread software supply chain compromise involving the world’s largest JavaScript registry, npmjs.com. A self-replicating worm—publicly known as Shai-Hulud—has compromised over 500 packages. After gaining initial access, the malicious cyber actor deployed malware that scanned the environment for sensitive credentials. The cyber actor then targeted GitHub Personal Access Tokens (PATs) and application programming interface (API) keys for cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure. The malware then:

• Exfiltrated the harvested credentials to an endpoint controlled by the actor.
• Uploaded the credentials to a public repository named Shai-Hulud via the GitHub/user/repos API.
• Leveraged an automated process to rapidly spread by authenticating to the npm registry as the compromised developer, injecting code into other packages, and publishing compromised versions to the registry.

CISA urges organizations to implement the recommendations found in the alert to detect and remediate this compromise. The following resources provide additional guidance on this compromise:

• GitHub: Our plan for a more secure npm supply chain
• Palo Alto Networks Unit 42: Shai-Hulud Worm Compromises npm Ecosystem in Supply Chain Attack (Updated September 18)
• Socket: Updated and Ongoing Supply Chain Attack Targets CrowdStrike npm Packages
• ReversingLabs: Malware found on npm infecting local package with reverse shell