• News/
  • https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/28/posthog_shaihulud/

PostHog admits Shai-Hulud 2.0 was its biggest ever security bungle

The Register
·
Carly Page
·
Published Nov 28, 2025
·
Updated

PostHog says the Shai-Hulud 2.0 npm worm compromise was "the largest and most impactful security incident" it's ever experienced after attackers slipped malicious releases into its JavaScript SDKs and tried to auto-loot developer credentials. In a postmortem released by PostHog, one of the various package maintainers impacted by Shai-Hulud 2.0, the company says contaminated packages – which included core SDKs like posthog-node, posthog-js, and posthog-react-native – contained a pre-install script that ran automatically when the software was installed. That script ran TruffleHog to scan for credentials, exfiltrated any found secrets to new public GitHub repositories, then used stolen npm credentials to publish further malicious packages – enabling the worm to spread. According to security boffins at Wiz who uncovered the second coming of the Shai-Hulud campaign, more than 25,000 developers had their secrets compromised within three days. Along with PostHog, affected packages include those provided by Zapier, AsyncAPI, ENS Domains, and Postman, several of which have thousands of weekly downloads. Shai-Hulud 2.0 doesn't just propagate like a typical trojan – it behaves like a full-blown worm. Once a compromised package is installed, the malware can steal not only npm or GitHub tokens, but also cloud credentials (AWS, Azure, GCP), CI/CD secrets, environment variables, and other sensitive data from developer machines or build systems. PostHog says it revoked all compromised tokens...

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Affected Software

3 affected components
PostHog posthog-node
PostHog posthog-js
PostHog posthog-react-native
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the main topic of this article?

The main topic of the article is PostHog's admission regarding the Shai-Hulud 2.0 npm worm compromise, which it describes as its biggest security incident.

2

What security implications are discussed?

The article discusses the significant security breach caused by malicious releases in PostHog's JavaScript SDKs, which attempted to exploit developer credentials.

3

What products or software are affected?

The affected products include PostHog's posthog-node, posthog-js, and posthog-react-native SDKs.

4

How did the attackers compromise PostHog's systems?

The attackers compromised PostHog's systems by slipping malicious npm package releases into its SDKs.

5

What response has PostHog had regarding this incident?

PostHog has acknowledged the incident as the largest and most impactful security incident it has ever faced, highlighting the urgency of addressing the vulnerabilities.

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