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 (3696b3aaa62ad07c027d3471a6061628fe63f07faa135887342362ceb424e604)
The package ships a `.pth` file that imports `research_probe_6150c1c915._boot` on every Python interpreter startup, with no explicit import by the user required. `_boot.py` executes `bootstrap()` which snapshots the full `os.environ`, enumerates `/proc/*/cmdline` for up to 200 processes, and queries the GCP instance metadata service at `http://169.254.169.254/computeMetadata/v1/?recursive=true` and `.../service-accounts/default/email` with the `Metadata-Flavor: Google` header. The `recursive=true` metadata query on a GCE/GKE/Cloud Run host returns service-account OAuth access tokens and other credential material. Collected data (environment variables and metadata responses, including any returned tokens) is written as JSON to `/tmp/research_probe_6150c1c915/` and to a `_runs/` directory inside the installed package. The `/tmp` destination is world-readable on default Linux configurations, so any local account on the same host can read the harvested cloud credentials and environment. The `.pth` auto-execution mechanism makes this fire on every Python invocation after install, not just when the module is imported.
Source: kam193 (a646eaf4fe72ba013abc53d52c0bf017a9c4f3bfc54a8c358f9f246d3ac41945)
The package is most likely a reconnaissance of a shared infrastructure, collecting potentially sensitive data from cloud endpoints, activated via a PTH file on every Python loading. Collected data are stored in a local filesystem, suggesting the operator has to have some degree of control of the environment.
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Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-10-omeraf
Reasons (based on the campaign):
- exfiltration-cloud-tokens
- The package contains code to exfiltrate basic data from the system, like IP or username. It has a limited risk.
- other
- abuses-pth