CVE-2026-48160: react-tracked was vulnerable to malicious code execution via compromised commits
react-tracked provides state usage tracking with Proxies. Between 2026-05-18 19:26:36 and 2026-05-19 15:22:45, the default branch contained malicious commits 6978272a7d6ca02225cb747ea69f427512e33699 through 949f1a3d6bb1ff7d1a0dec892afd773e742627e8 that executed remote attacker-controlled code on developer machines during npm install. The commits were removed by force-push, but local clones, forks, and direct-SHA URLs may still contain them, and npm install against an affected checkout will still execute the code today. The package was not published to npm. src/install.js was added and wired into the postinstall script. It fetched a JavaScript payload from an attacker-controlled HTTPS endpoint (configurable via an environment variable), disabled TLS verification, and evaluated the response as code with require available. Execution was deliberately skipped on CI and cloud/serverless environments, targeting developer workstations. The second-stage payload was attacker-hosted and cannot be reconstructed. Assume full compromise of anything reachable from a Node process with the user's permissions. Those who ran npm install against an affected checkout on a developer machine on or after 2026-05-18 19:26:36 should treat the machine as compromised, rotate every credential the machine could reach, audit account activity since 2026-05-18 19:26:36, and clean local clones.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Operational
Treat developer machines where an `npm install` ran against an affected checkout on or after 2026-05-18 19:26:36 as compromised.
- Operational
Rotate every credential the compromised machine could reach (after compromise window starting 2026-05-18 19:26:36).
- Operational
Audit account activity since 2026-05-18 19:26:36 for suspicious actions.
- Operational
Clean local clones/forks/direct-SHA checkouts that may still contain malicious commits (6978272a7d6ca02225cb747ea69f427512e33699 through 949f1a3d6bb1ff7d1a0dec892afd773e742627e8).