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OpenAdvisories
Malicious MAL-2026-5868

datacamp-light

PyPI package · versions 99.0.0

Reported Jun 16, 2026 · Updated Jun 16, 2026

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 (234a0d37873455b7db32068745d93ed29aafa596877b39949280b4ec0621ad6b)
datacamp-light 99.0.0 impersonates DataCamp's internal package (name='datacamp-light', author='DataCamp', url='https://github.com/datacamp/datacamp-light', anomalous version 99.0.0 — the canonical dependency-confusion bait shape). setup.py defines an exfiltrate() function and invokes it unconditionally at top level, so it fires during `pip install`. The function collects hostname, current working directory, platform, Python version, and USER/USERNAME environment variables, JSON-encodes them, and POSTs them via urllib.request.urlopen to https://z39gspa3.pingback.sh/c. Any installer whose resolver picks up this public artifact (the intent of the 99.0.0 version pin) leaks host and user identifiers to the pingback domain. Even though the package self-labels as a 'PoC,' the published artifact actively phones home from any machine that installs it.

Source: kam193 (932d64d5c0af79e8508b244379f54edc48fea625d9becd455912980e30dd146e)
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.