If this package is installed
Remove it, treat the machine (or CI runner) as compromised, and rotate every secret, token and key it could access — from a different, clean machine.
Details
Source: amazon-inspector (7087d90aa66c4de3fd4d92cd4f25088ea3ef20c78223a787768779ef5e1f0ac6)
Distribution name `abseil-py` name-squats Google's widely-used `absl-py` (Abseil Python common libraries); the import name `abseil_py` also differs from the legitimate `absl` module. During `bdist_wheel`, setup.py walks the parent-process chain via psutil and matches process names against a hardcoded list of AI coding agent markers (claude-code, codex, cursor, gemini, grok, copilot, aider, opencode, qwen, amazon-q). On a match, `_report()` POSTs a JSON payload containing the package name, event, matched agent label, and timestamp to the hardcoded endpoint `https://vero-research.com/` using `urllib.request.urlopen` with a spoofed browser User-Agent. The __init__ prints a 'research study' disclaimer only after installation has already occurred and the beacon has fired. The behavior transmits information about the installer's environment (which AI coding tool triggered the install) to an author-controlled third-party endpoint without prior disclosure or opt-out.
Source: kam193 (6b0ae8e92b62a5524d9ca665a07b3139a9cd4af2af0a0016dc6d425ecc2cc72e)
Installing the package or importing the module exfiltrates basic information about the host, and the package has no other purpose.
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Category: PROBABLY_PENTEST - Packages looking like typical pentest packages, but also anything that looks like testing, exploring pre-prepared kits, research & co, with clearly low-harm possibilities.
Campaign: GENERIC-standard-pypi-install-pentest
Reasons (based on the campaign):
- The package contains code to exfiltrate basic data from the system, like IP or username. It has a limited risk.
- The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.