GHSA-cxm3-wv7p-598c: Malicious versions of Nx were published
SummaryMalicious versions of the [`nx` package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/nx), as well as some supporting plugin packages, were published to npm, containing code that scans the file system, collects credentials, and posts them to GitHub as a repo under user's accounts.Immediate Actions RequiredFor all users, check if you were impactedCheck your account's audit logs (https://github.com/settings/security-log?q=action%3Arepo.create) to see if a repo containing s1ngularity-repository in the name was published to your Github account. If so your credentials were likely compromised. Unfortunately, Github may have proactively deleted the repo for you. To be safe, rotate any credentials such as Github, NPM, and anything that may have been in your environment variables.Check your local machine to see if there is a file at `/tmp/inventory.txt`, this file will contain a list of files which the malware probably read from. If this file exists, you have been affected.Check this https://github.com/[GithubSlug]?tab=repositories&q=s1ngularity-repository to see if you have a repo containing s1ngularity-repository remains on your Github account. If you do not have the repository available to you anymore, reach out to Github support and they can provide you the contents of the repository.Download the file in the repo for your own records.Then, remove the repo from GitHub.E-mail security@nrwl.io and we will instruct you on how to decode the file so you are aware what information was leakedRotate your credentials and tokens on all of your accounts.Rotate your Github tokenIn order to rotate your Github token, follow these steps:Visit https://github.com/settings/connections/applications/178c6fc778ccc68e1d6a. This is the setting for the Github app used by the `gh` CLI to authenticate itself.Revoke access to that app. This will invalidate the OLD token which may have been compromised.The next time you run the `gh` CLI, you will reauth and a NEW token will be generated.**If you do not do this**, your Github access token may be utilized to do malicious activity on your Github account.Rotate all of your tokens but this is specific instruction for Github to make it as easy as possible.For all users, stop using the malicious versionsFor Users Who were compromised:Refer to the section above to see if you were compromised. If so, do the following.**Rotate npm tokens:** Visit https://www.npmjs.com/ and rotate your tokens.**Rotate Github Tokens:** Visit https://www.github.com/ and rotate your tokens.**Change Github Credentials:** Change passwords for Github**Change your passwords** for any other services you use.**Check your `.zshrc` and `.bashrc` files** for any unfamiliar lines and remove them.Purge Malicious Versions from Internal RegistriesFor maintainers of internal registries Immediately remove the compromised versions listed above from your internal package registries (e.g., JFrog Artifactory, Sonatype Nexus) or any other proxies to `[npmjs.org](http://npmjs.org/)`. This will prevent further internal downloads of the malicious code.Affected Versions of `nx`21.5.0Published at 6:32 PM20.9.020.10.021.6.020.11.021.7.021.8.020.12.0Published at 8:37 PMThese versions have since been removed from NPM as of 10:44 PM EDTAffected Versions of `@nx/devkit`, `@nx/js`, `@nx/workspace`, `@nx/node`21.5.0Published at 6:32 PM20.9.0Published at 8:42 PMAffected Versions of `@nx/eslint`21.5.0Published at 6:32 PMThese versions have since been removed from NPM as of 10:44 PM EDTAffected Versions of `@nx/key` and `@nx/enterprise-cloud`3.2.0 onlyPublished at 6:32 PMThese versions have since been removed from NPM as of 6:20 AM EDTAttack VectorVulnerable WorkflowThe root cause the introduction of a vulnerable [workflow](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/pull/32458) which contained the possibility for injecting executable code. The vulnerable workflow was reverted in `master` almost immediately after the team learned it could have been malicious. However, this proved to be inadequate to address the vulnerability.The workflow contained the 2 issues.Bash InjectionThe intention of these lines was to print out the pull request titles being validated via our commit format checks.However, if a PR was opened with a title such as `$(echo "You've been compromised")` the code would be executed within the workflow. We understood this once it was reported but we did not fully understand how this would compromise any secrets because the PR title validation workflow itself did not have access to any secrets.Elevated Permissions via `pull_request_target`The `pull_request_target` trigger ([Github Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/events-that-trigger-workflows#pull_request_target)) was used as a way to trigger the action to run whenever a PR was created or modified. However, what was missed is the warning that this trigger, unlike the standard `pull_request` trigger, runs workflows with elevated permissions including a `GITHUB_TOKEN` which has read/write repository permission. Furthermore, the workflows are executed on the target repo of the PR (`nrwl/nx`) which means that the `GITHUB_TOKEN` had permissions for the `nrwl/nx` repo. In addition, the workflow is run using the version of the workflow available on the target branch which is not necessarily `master`. We believe that the PR was made targeting an outdated branch which still contained the vulnerable workflow despite the fact that the vulnerable workflow was removed from `master`.Note: While the `GITHUB_TOKEN` had read/write capabilities. The `master` branch and other important branches have Branch Protection rules enabled so the vulnerable workflow could not have written directly to `master`.We believe the `GITHUB_TOKEN` from this workflow was utilized to trigger another workflow, the `publish.yml` workflow.How the NPM token was compromisedUp until this point, the team believed that although the PR validation workflow was vulnerable, it didn't contain any secrets. The vulnerable pipeline was just a means to trigger our `publish.yml` pipeline which does indeed have the npm token which was used to publish the malicious versions of Nx.The `publish.yml` pipeline, is our most permissive pipeline. It is responsible for publishing the Nx packages and therefore has access to the npm token via a Github Secret. As such, we took great care at least within the pipeline itself that ONLY our team was able to utilize the pipeline. As recommended, our github secrets are only accessible within pipelines triggered on `nrwl/nx` and they are not accessible from any forks keeping it safe from external contributors.However, because of the elevated permissions from the PR validation workflow, the `publish.yml` workflow was triggered to run on the `nrwl/nx` repo. Additional changes were made in the [malicious commit](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/commit/3905475cfd0e0ea670e20c6a9eaeb768169dc33d) which altered the behavior of the `publish.yml` pipeline to send the npm token to a webhook. As part of the bash injection, the PR validation workflows triggered a run of the `publish.yml` with this malicious commit and sent our npm token to an unfamiliar webhook. We believe this is how the user got a hold of the NPM token used to publish the malicious versions of Nx.Note: The `publish.yml`  workflow did not publish packages in this incident but was the means to obtain the NPM token.Malicious BehaviorCredentials published as a Github repoThe compromised package contained a `postinstall` script that scanned user's file system for text files, collected paths, and credentials upon installing the package. This information was then posted as an encoded string to a github repo under the user's Github account. The Github repo would be posted with a name which contains `s1ngularity-repository`. Github has since started to deactivate or archive these repos on their end. If you see that you have this repo, even though it may be archived now, at one point it was likely public meaning credentials in there could have been compromised.Modification to `$HOME/.zshrc` and `$HOME/.bashrc`The malicious `postinstall` script also modified the `.zshrc` and `.bashrc` which are run whenever a terminal is launched to include `sudo shutdown -h 0` whichwill  prompt users for their system password and if provided, would shutdown the machine immediately.How the `postinstall` may be triggeredThe most obvious way the `postinstall` is triggered is manually running `npm install`, `yarn`, or `pnpm install` in a repo with the compromised version in the `package.json`.However, there are many less obvious ways NPM modules could get installed. Transitive dependencies, AI agents, editors, other editor extensions, other scripts are the first that come to mind but there are many many less obvious reasons why NPM modules might get installed.Nx Console (VSCode) installing `nx@latest`Some users reported to the team that despite not having any workspaces which utilized Nx, they found that they had been affected. The team dug into how this was possible and found that versions of Nx Console for VSCode from 18.6.30 to 18.65.1 (inclusive), our IDE extension, installs the `latest` version of the `nx` package to check the version of the `nx` package. Because this installed `nx`, the malicious `postinstall` was effectively triggered by opening an editor with the Nx Console extension. So, if you have the Nx Console extension installed in your editor and launched it while the malicious versions of `nx` were tagged at `latest` (between August 26th 6:37 PM - 10:44 PM EDT) you may have been compromised as well. Best to check if a Github repo was created on your account.This is not malicious behavior on its own but certainly made matters worse here. As such, Nx Console version 18.66.0 has been released which no longer does this check. Again, this is just one of the many ways which NPM modules could be installed without being intentionally triggered by the user.**Note:** This only applies to VSCode extension, not the JetBrains/IntelliJ extension.TimelineAll of the following times are in EDT.August 21, 2025 - Introduction of the vulnerability
**4:31 PM** - The team merged a [PR](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/pull/32458) which introduced a Github Actions workflow with an injection vulnerability which allowed execution of arbitrary bash commands.
**10:48 PM** - A [post](https://x.com/adnanthekhan/status/1958722939534417989) was made to X (formally Twitter) that this workflow contained an injection exploit.August 22, 2025 - Inadequate resolution of the vulnerability
**3:17 PM** - The team noticed the X post and began to investigate it internally.
**3:45 PM** - After a cursory review and to be abundantly cautious, the vulnerable workflow was [reverted](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/pull/32486) which we believed at the time would prevent the vulnerable pipeline from being used categorically. Later, we discovered that the vulnerable pipeline could still indeed be triggered.
**3:52 PM** - The team enabled CodeQL to the Nx repo and it identified no Critical vulnerabilities. This will catch similar vulnerabilities in PRs before they are merged.August 24, 2025 - Exploitation of the vulnerability
**4:50 PM** - An attacker made a [commit](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/commit/3905475cfd0e0ea670e20c6a9eaeb768169dc33d) to the `nrwl/nx` repo which showed signs of posting the NPM token to a webhook where the attacker likely received it.
**5:04 PM** - Retroactively (we were not aware of this event until later), from our Github audit logs, we saw a PR was created to the `nrwl/nx` repo with the malicious commit which triggers the PR validation workflow with a PR title which injects and executes malicious code. The PR has since been deleted and we cannot access it.
**5:11 PM** - Again retroactively (we were not aware of this event until later), from our Github audit logs, we saw a `publish.yml` workflow, a different workflow, was deleted. The workflow again utilized the malicious commit from a fork of the Nx repo. We believe that this `publish.yml` workflow was triggered by the PR validation workflow stemming from the PR creation.August 26, 2025 - Escalation of the vulnerability and first response
**6:32 PM** - v21.5.0 of `nx`, `@nx/devkit`, `@nx/js`, `@nx/workspace`, `@nx/node` and `@nx/eslint` was published, as well as v3.2.0 of `@nx/key` and `@nx/enterprise-cloud`
**6:39 PM** - v20.9.0 of `nx`, `@nx/devkit`, `@nx/js`, `@nx/workspace`, `@nx/node` was published
**7:54 PM** - v20.10.0 of only `nx` was published
**7:54 PM** - v21.6.0 of only `nx` was published
**8:16 PM** - v20.11.0 of only `nx` was published
**8:17 PM** - v21.7.0 of only `nx` was published
**8:30 PM** - A [GitHub issue](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/32522) was posted alerting the team of the issue.
**8:33 PM** - Another [GitHub issue](https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/32523) was posted which was closed in favor of the first issue.
**8:37 PM** - v21.8.0 of only `nx` was published
**8:37 PM** - v20.12.0 of only `nx` was published
**9:54 PM** - A GitHub user reported the issue to NPM support.
**9:58 PM** - A member of the team noticed the GitHub issue and posted it on Slack. Other members started to get involved and tried to escalate with the token owner and the owner of nrwl org.
**10:44 PM** - NPM removed the affected versions and all publish tokens from all users from the registry, preventing any further publishes to any `nx` or related packages
**11:57 PM** - All NPM tokens with permissions for publishing were revoked preventing further malicious versionsAugust 27, 2025 - Remediation and further investigation
**1:53 AM** - This security advisory was posted.
**2:32 AM** - The team began to notify affected users and our clients with a way to receive aid with remediating their impact.
**3:33 AM** - The team received reports that the malicious behavior was more extensive than initially realized and identified that Nx Console triggered an install of the `latest` version of `nx`. 
**5:05 AM** - Github started making the repositories private somehow so that they do not show up in the search
**6:20 AM** -  NPM removed affected versions of other identified packages
**8:33 AM** - A new version of Nx Console was released which no longer installs the `latest` version of `nx`.
**11:57 AM** -  All NPM packages under Nx (affected or not) have been set to require 2FA and CANNOT be published with npm tokens any longer. All NPM packages have also been changed to use the new [Trusted Publisher](https://docs.npmjs.com/trusted-publishers) mechanism which does not utilize npm tokens
**1:23 PM** - The team was notified of the malicious commit which seemed suspicious and aligned with the incident
**1:55 PM** - The malicious commit was linked to the workflows triggered days earlier via the Github audit logs
**2:50 PM** - The team successfully reproduced how the attack was done involving outdated PR branches being the remaining avenue how the vulnerable pipeline continued to be utilized.
**3:14 PM** -All outdated branches on `nrwl/nx` were rebased removing the vulnerable pipeline from being possibly utilized. 
**3:28 PM** - The team has temporarily also added additional restrictions where the team will have to approve pipelines to be executed on PRs from external contributorsPreventative measures implemented before the incidentWe had several preventative measures in place before the incident some of which include:**2FA Enforcement:** All maintainers under the nrwl org had to have 2FA enabled on their accounts. (2FA was not required to publish but it was required to login to the accounts)Provenance was attached to recent versions of NxThis does not prevent installing the package but it did provide a way to verify the integrity of new versions of `nx`.Remediation and Preventative Measures TakenWe have taken the following actions to remediate this issue, prevent further issues, also ensure validity of future packages.[x] Deprecated all malicious package versions[x] Restored `21.4.1` (a valid version) as `latest`[x] Revoked possibly compromised personal account access, even though single compromised token seems most likely at this time[x] Rotated all team NPM and GitHub tokens[x] Audit GitHub and NPM activities across the organization for suspicious activities[x] Updated Publish access for `nx` to require 2FA or automation[x] Posted this advisory[x] The `nx` package now requires [Trusted Providers](https://docs.npmjs.com/trusted-publishers#supported-cicd-providers) methodology of publishing via our `.github/publish.yml` workflow in the `nrwl/nx` repo.[x] Remove NPM tokens from our pipeline now that we're using Trusted Providers on NPM[x] All NPM packages under Nx (the company) including `nx` have been set to require 2FA and cannot be published with access tokens[x] All Github secrets on the `nrwl/nx` repo have been rotated. If any other secrets were compromised, they are no longer valid.[ ] We are continuing to assess how if any other malicious activity was done with the other secrets we have in Github but have not found any further malicious activity at this time.[x] All branches containing the vulnerable pipeline on `nrwl/nx` have been updated to not have the vulnerable pipeline.[x] The nx repo now also will require team members to approve workflows triggered by external contributors. This will block workflows unknown to us from slipping through.[x] CodeQL was enabled in the Nx repo. This will catch similar vulnerabilities in PRs before they are merged.[x] We have added `SECURITY.md` instructions detailing the proper way to notify us privately about future security issues in Nx.This advisory will be updated when there is more information available.Lessons LearnedAlong with the preventative measures we have now put in place, the team has learned many valuable lessons from this incident. The team will soon retrospect on this incident, formulate the lessons we have learned, and share those with the community.Questions and ConcernsIf you have any questions and concerns, please email us at security@nrwl.ioReferencesOther Github Issues:https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/32522https://github.com/nrwl/nx/issues/32523Link to detailed postmortem/blog postAppendixScript (from @jahredhope): 
telemetry.jsImages of the diff (from @TimShilov):
<img width="1638" height="1020" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/60e6cd0b-3674-4069-a18f-82df19b9693a" />