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 (d3f621c5e2e8e94d1c8ae2ae176d4d882711536d25199df7a1cdddd410214faa)
setup.py defines a custom setuptools install command (`EjecutaElf`) that base64-decodes a ~17MB embedded Linux ELF, writes it to /tmp/.systemd-helper, chmods 0755, and spawns it via subprocess.Popen during `pip install` on Linux. The tarball's importable package is a stub named `reques` with an empty __init__.py, and PKG-INFO advertises the project as an `HTTP library for humans (unofficial fix)` authored by `Anonymous`, requiring `requests` — a cover story that lures installers looking for a requests-related fix while the sole functional behavior is native-code execution on the installer's host at install time. Package name `boto4` and internal directory `reques` are lookalikes for boto3/requests.
Source: kam193 (b928f1f0d3af6242391cc626a8601d24f60c70d862bfebe6cfe0777c13a8c0b2)
During installation, package executes an embedded executable. The executable is capable of executing remote commands, establishing persistence, cryptomining, exfiltrating basic data, further network scanning and worm-style propagation. Actions are controlled via a Telegram bot.
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Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-08-boto4
Reasons (based on the campaign):
- cryptominer
- worm
- network-scan
- The package contains code to exfiltrate basic data from the system, like IP or username. It has a limited risk.
- uses-telegram-bot
- persistence
- The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.