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CriticalCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Nx Console Embedded Malicious Code Vulnerability

IdentifiersCVE-2026-48027CWE-506· Embedded Malicious Code

CVE-2026-48027 tracks a software supply-chain compromise of Nx Console, the UI extension for Nx and Lerna used in VS Code and JetBrains environments. A malicious Nx Console release, version 18.95.0, was published to trusted extension distribution channels, including Visual Studio Marketplace and OpenVSX, on 2026-05-19 and remained available briefly before removal. According to the provided reporting and CISA KEV entry, the compromised extension contained embedded malicious code and fetched an obfuscated secondary payload. That payload was capable of harvesting credentials from multiple sources on disk and in memory. Additional reporting in the provided context indicates the malicious extension was distributed through automatic update mechanisms, executed when developers opened a workspace, and targeted developer workstations as the initial access point.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation results in compromise of the developer workstation and theft of credentials and secrets accessible from that system. The provided context states the malicious payload could harvest credentials from disk and memory, including developer and CI/CD-related secrets such as GitHub tokens and other authentication material. Downstream impact can include unauthorized access to private repositories, CI/CD workflows, package registries, infrastructure-as-code repositories, cloud and Kubernetes administration artifacts, and the ability to tamper with build pipelines or publish further malicious updates. CISA guidance in the provided content says organizations should treat any machine that ran the compromised extension as fully compromised.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate upgrade and full remediation cannot be completed, disable or uninstall Nx Console on affected systems, block installation or update of the compromised version from extension marketplaces, and isolate developer endpoints suspected of running version 18.95.0. As compensating controls, revoke and rotate GitHub personal access tokens, OAuth tokens, SSH keys, cloud credentials, Kubernetes configs, npm/package-registry tokens, and other secrets accessible to affected developer machines; audit repositories and workflows for suspicious modifications; validate package provenance and pin trusted versions; and restrict extension installation/update sources where possible.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Remove the compromised Nx Console version 18.95.0 and upgrade to Nx Console 18.100.0, which the provided content identifies as not compromised. Because the issue is a malicious published build rather than a conventional code defect, remediation should also include incident response actions on any host where the compromised extension was installed or executed: treat the endpoint as compromised, investigate for indicators of compromise, rotate exposed credentials and tokens, review repository and CI/CD activity for unauthorized changes, and audit related service accounts, workflows, and secrets for abuse.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
NxNx Consoleapplication

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What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence1

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware1

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures1

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity11

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.