Malicious code in tailwind-animatecss-uniform (npm)

{
  "id": "6bfe26cd01e104a981933d06568bd2b4db0421ee9d186060e8b1d3daa9752bc5",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-17667",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Malicious code in tailwind-animatecss-uniform (npm)",
    "summary": "tailwind-animatecss-uniform 2.0.7 was published to npm on 2026-09-28 by the account ares0320. The package is part of a fake job interview campaign that targets developers, using the same method as the \"Contagious Interview\" campaign. A fake company sends a take-home coding assessment repository. The repository commits a web/.npmrc containing a plaintext npm auth token, and its tailwind.config.js loads this package as a Tailwind CSS plugin. The package presents itself as an Animate.css integration (\"A configurable, namespaced Animate.css integration for Tailwind CSS\", main plugin.js) but declares a runtime dependency on a private scoped npm package (@jasperquinn/postcss-motion-helpers) that is not publicly readable, so npm audit and public scanners cannot see it; it only resolves with the token committed in the lure repository. The package has no install scripts, so --ignore-scripts does not help: the code runs when Tailwind loads the config, i.e. on `npm run dev` / `next dev`. Public analysis of the earlier package in this chain (animatecss-tailwind-adapter, by Yunus Aydın) reports that the private package contacts an operator-controlled server and runs the code it receives with full Node.js privileges. Observed directly: the lure was a \"backend engineer assessment\" for a fake company \"Nodveta\" (nodveta.com), posted as a job on Torre.ai (https://torre.ai/s/dphYpcyPn1) and shared as the private GitHub repository Nodveta-Infra/backend-engineer-assessment (a Hardhat / Express / ",
    "evidence": "osv:MAL-2026-17667",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "tailwind-animatecss-uniform",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [],
        "affected_versions": [
          {
            "value": "2.0.7",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/versions"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "severity": "unknown",
    "structured": {
      "id": "MAL-2026-17667",
      "aliases": [
        "GHSA-hxvr-77vv-6r85",
        "MAL-2026-17667"
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "SEMVER",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "tailwind-animatecss-uniform",
            "purl": "pkg:npm/tailwind-animatecss-uniform",
            "ecosystem": "npm"
          },
          "versions": [
            "2.0.7"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "cwes": [
              {
                "name": "Embedded Malicious Code",
                "cweId": "CWE-506",
                "description": "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature."
              },
              {
                "name": "Embedded Malicious Code",
                "cweId": "CWE-506",
                "description": "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature."
              }
            ],
            "source": "https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/npm/tailwind-animatecss-uniform/MAL-2026-17667.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-09T15:33:30.325840331Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://www.npmjs.com/package/tailwind-animatecss-uniform",
        "https://torre.ai/s/dphYpcyPn1",
        "https://nodveta.com",
        "https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-hxvr-77vv-6r85"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "malicious-packages-origins": [
          {
            "id": "GHSA-hxvr-77vv-6r85",
            "ranges": [
              {
                "type": "SEMVER",
                "events": [
                  {
                    "introduced": "0"
                  }
                ]
              }
            ],
            "sha256": "39ef484ae5c73a007433bc3366d9fe6c0354d2854b1b9424e1e0291894e7a44d",
            "source": "ghsa-malware",
            "import_time": "2026-10-09T15:26:20.362001579Z",
            "modified_time": "2026-10-09T15:21:56Z"
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": null
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 121081,
  "published_at": "2026-10-07T18:36:40+00:00"
}