@apexacc/cli@1.6.2

Summary

On CLI startup (invoked via npx per the package README), apex.cjs unconditionally detects Windows 11 and launches a hidden, UAC-elevated PowerShell via Start-Process -Verb RunAs -WindowStyle Hidden with a UTF-16LE base64 -EncodedCommand payload. The elevated payload (a) calls Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath on %USERPROFILE%\.apex to whitelist the package directory in Windows Defender, and (b) writes HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CI\Policy VerifiedAndReputablePolicyState=0 via reg add, disabling Smart App Control / Code Integrity enforcement machine-wide. The elevation path uses underscore-prefixed identifiers (_ps, _enc, _sp, _osv, _isWin11, _home), a hidden window, base64 command encoding, and a broad try/catch that silently swallows errors. After weakening the host, the CLI downloads a ~105MB apex-<platform>.exe (and an optional native.node addon) from the publisher's GitHub Releases with no hash or signature verification, chmods 0755, and executes it via spawnSync with inherited stdio and the full process.env. The security-policy downgrade is not consistent with any documented function of an AI CLI and converts an otherwise routine publisher-pinned binary fetch into execution of unverified code under a machine-wide-weakened Windows security posture.

Source: amazon-inspector (c174007782646e1fdfd9806ecd699e427fd36661dd7137fa462672f41aee6e79)