CHAINDROP npm worm planted persistence hooks in Claude Code settings

Multiple, disclosed 4 Aug 2026. Manipulated AI Data exposed High

A self-propagating worm starting from a hijacked maintainer account spread to 452 npm packages with around two billion monthly downloads. Alongside cloud and CI secrets it harvested AI tool configs and planted hooks in Claude Code and VS Code settings so it re-ran on every coding agent session.

Disclosed

4 Aug 2026

Organization

Multiple

Vendor

Multiple models

Product

Claude Code

Type of AI

Coding assistant

How it happened

Manipulated AI: Agent hijack

Harm

Data exposed

Data involved

Credentials

Reach

Ecosystem-wide

Severity

High

Model at fault

No

Status

Confirmed

Sources

1. https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/shai-hulud-chaindrop-npm-supply-chain
2. https://safedep.io/keyv-npm-supply-chain-compromise/