MalwarePublished 16 Jul 2026Updated 6 Aug 2026

syft-acp-util (npm) · Malicious Code

Affects syft-acp-utilSource GCVE Database

Malicious package : remove syft-acp-util and rotate any secrets on hosts that installed it.

Data as of 6 Aug 2026, 18:31 UTC

Classification

Malicious package

Published to npm · OSV MAL-2026-10767

What to do

Remove syft-acp-util from every project, lockfile and image that pulls it in. Treat any host that installed it as compromised: rotate the credentials, tokens and keys it could read, from a clean machine.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
npmsyft-acp-util	Affected =17.0.0 =1.0.0	Fixed in–

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Description

The syft-acp-util npm package is a malicious package published as part of a dependency confusion reconnaissance campaign. It mimics an internal package name to trick misconfigured resolvers into installing it instead of the intended private package. The package includes a preinstall script that executes automatically during npm install, which collects the installer's public IP and other default PII and sends this telemetry to an attacker-controlled Sentry project. This behavior allows the attacker to identify successful installs and attribute them to specific victim organizations. The malicious payload is identical to a previous campaign named 'click2ai' and uses the same attacker infrastructure.

Impact

Successful installation of this package results in leakage of sensitive telemetry data including the installer's public IP address, hostname, OS username, and runtime environment metadata to an attacker-controlled Sentry project. This enables the attacker to perform reconnaissance on victim organizations by identifying which hosts have installed the malicious package. The impact is primarily information disclosure and targeted reconnaissance rather than direct code execution or system compromise.

Defensive guidance

Users should avoid installing the syft-acp-util package, especially if it is not from a trusted source. Organizations should audit their dependency resolution configurations to prevent dependency confusion attacks by ensuring private packages are resolved correctly and not overridden by similarly named public packages. Monitoring and blocking outbound connections to unknown Sentry endpoints may help detect or prevent telemetry exfiltration.

Summary

The syft-acp-util package published on npm by user 'ada8877' contains a preinstall hook that runs a script sending telemetry data to an attacker-controlled Sentry endpoint. This script collects the installer's public IP address by querying Cloudflare's trace endpoint, gathers default PII such as hostname and OS username, and deliberately triggers an exception to send this data to the attacker's Sentry project. The package name is designed to mimic an internal private package to exploit dependency confusion in target organizations. The payload is identical to a prior campaign and uses the same Sentry organization and ProtonMail maintainer identity. Additionally, the package exposes an init() function that falls back to the attacker's Sentry DSN if no DSN is provided, potentially leaking telemetry from consumer applications that call this function without explicit configuration.

References

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What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 6 Aug 2026, 18:31 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews