150,000 Packages Flood NPM Registry in Token Farming Campaign

Amazon researchers identified more than 150,000 malicious NPM packages engaged in a token farming campaign targeting the tea[.]xyz protocol, a blockchain-based system that rewards open source contributors. The campaign stood out for its self-replicating attack pattern rather than overt malicious code, with packages designed to inflate metrics and siphon cryptocurrency rewards through circular dependency chains. Detection by Amazon Inspector researchers began after a new rule deployed on Oct.

24 flagged suspicious package patterns in the registry, and by Nov. 8 the two organisations had reported the findings to the Open Source Security Foundation, assigning MAL-IDs to more than 150,000 packages. According to Chi Tran, senior security researcher at AWS, and Charlie Bacon, head of security engineering and research for Amazon Inspector, the attackers exploited npm’s package installation mechanism to chain installations and maximise the production of revenue, rather than delivering functional software.

The campaign did not involve ransomware or infostealers, but researchers warned it marks a concerning evolution in software supply chain security and risks to developers and the wider ecosystem.