A cluster of nearly 800 malicious packages has been published to the npm registry as part of a new campaign designed to deliver cross-platform malware targeting Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

“These packages appear to use AI slop squatted, or randomly generated typo-squatting package names, but all of them deliver a powerful RAT and infostealer payload,” OpenSourceMalware researcher Paul McCarty said.

Unlike other npm-oriented software supply chain attacks that make use of lifecycle hooks like preinstall or postinstall to trigger the execution of malicious code, the newly identified packages come with a README that instructs developers to load them with require, a built-in function to import modules, local files, and third-party packages.

Address books or allowlists reduce repeated manual entry, while first-time or changed destinations deserve a full comparison rather than a check of only the opening and closing characters.

In both campaigns, the first trust decision could look legitimate while the surrounding workflow had already been changed. Detection and verification need to cover the steps between the authenticated email, the copied value and the final action.

Gen’s H1 2026 Threat Report covers the broader picture across scams, malware, identity exposure, privacy and AI-driven attacks.