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: kam193 (e47981485066b674150cc4d9d3709e41707e69111f188e54e772becc7349ab89)
The package states to contain a modified curl library to allow low-level request modifications. However, there is also undisclosed malicious behavior:
1. The package installs a .pth file directly in the site-packages directory, effectively running a special code on each Python usage.
2. This code performs "TLS context warm-up" by contacting a URL (Github) in the background, in a separate process; this is suspicious on its own as it's unclear how a separate process can warm up further requests in the main process, but...
3. ...besides the URL given in the code above, the library always contacts a hardcoded URL, identifying itself as a VPN client.
Additionally, there is no source code of the modified library anywhere, and the related Github hosting the package code account is 1-day old.
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Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-02-ctf-toolkit
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.
Indicators of compromise
Shown defanged and not clickable. Search any indicator to find other packages using it.
Domains
- vpnico-1318014164[.]cos[.]ap-singapore[.]myqcloud[.]com other packages →
URLs
- hxxps://vpnico-1318014164[.]cos[.]ap-singapore[.]myqcloud[.]com/ico[.]bmp other packages →