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MetaMask SDK indirectly exposed via malicious [email protected] dependency

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Sep 12, 2025 in MetaMask/metamask-sdk • Updated Sep 15, 2025

Package

npm @metamask/sdk (npm)

Affected versions

>= 0.16.0, <= 0.33.0

Patched versions

0.33.1
npm @metamask/sdk-communication-layer (npm)
>= 0.16.0, <= 0.33.0
0.33.1
npm @metamask/sdk-react (npm)
>= 0.16.0, <= 0.33.0
0.33.1

Description

Who is affected?

This advisory only applies to developers who use MetaMask SDK in the browser and who, on Sept 8th 2025 between 13:00–15:30 UTC, performed one of the following actions and then deployed their application:

  • Installed MetaMask SDK into a project with a lockfile for the first time
  • Installed MetaMask SDK in a project without a lockfile
  • Updated a lockfile to pull in [email protected] (e.g., via npm update or yarn upgrade)

What happened?

On Sept 8th, 2025 (13:00–15:30 UTC), a malicious version of the debug package (v4.4.2) was published to npm. The injected code attempts to interfere with dApp-to-wallet communication when executed in a browser context.

While MetaMask SDK itself was not directly impacted, projects installing the SDK during this window may have inadvertently pulled in the malicious version of debug.

Mitigation

  • If your application was rebuilt and redeployed after Sept 8th, 2025, 15:30 UTC, the malicious version of debug should no longer be present. Please also verify that your package manager (npm, yarn, pnpm, etc.) is not caching [email protected].
  • If you have not yet deployed since performing one of the actions above, delete your node_modules and reinstall dependencies before deploying.
  • If your application was deployed during the attack window and has not been rebuilt since, perform a clean install of dependencies and redeploy to ensure the malicious package is removed.

Resources

GitHub Advisory for debug

References

@NicholasEllul NicholasEllul published to MetaMask/metamask-sdk Sep 12, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 15, 2025
Reviewed Sep 15, 2025
Last updated Sep 15, 2025

Severity

Moderate

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Embedded Malicious Code

The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

No known CVE

GHSA ID

GHSA-qj3p-xc97-xw74

Source code

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