PhantomRaven Attack Discovered in 126 Malicious npm Packages, Exceeding 86,000 Downloads

PhantomRaven is a sprawling campaign uncovered to involve 126 malicious npm packages that have amassed more than 86,000 downloads. In October 2025, according to Koi Security’s behavioral risk engine, Wings, a surge of external network requests from these packages was detected, revealing that the attack had been underway since August and that over 80 of the original 126 packages were still operational.

The attackers used Remote Dynamic Dependencies to reference HTTP URLs for dependencies, allowing the malware to fetch payloads directly from the attacker’s server and bypass npm’s registry controls. Once installed, PhantomRaven targets and exfiltrates emails, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI and npm credentials, and other CI/CD secrets, while also collecting system details such as IP addresses, hostnames and Node.js versions.

The campaign relied on automated lifecycle scripts that run on installation, enabling the payload to execute regardless of where the package sits in the dependency tree. npm removals were early but miss the majority of subsequent uploads, allowing the campaign to evade detection for months.