{"id":"MAL-2026-15829","title":"Malicious code in telemetry-helper (PyPI)","summary":"Malicious code in telemetry-helper (PyPI)","severity":"none","vendor":"telemetry-helper","product":"telemetry-helper","ecosystem":"pip","affected":["telemetry-helper"],"published":"2026-09-03","updated":"2026-09-03","source":"OSV","sourceUrl":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-15829","references":[{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.0.1/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/2.0.0/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.1.0/"},{"url":"https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/telemetry-helper"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.0.2/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/2.0.1/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.3.0/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.2.0/"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/telemetry-helper/1.0.0/"}],"tags":["osv","pip"],"ingestedAt":"2026-09-03T19:32:11.092Z","slug":"MAL-2026-15829","body":"## Overview\n\n\n---\n_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_\n\n## Source: amazon-inspector (26ef1779c00c37e2ee65632fefde6bbe242f5a15294ee018caa1d1d2ad5b6000)\nOn `import telemetry_helper`, top-level code starts a daemon thread that sleeps 30 seconds and then POSTs a JSON payload containing the hostname, username, current working directory, and the entire process environment (`dict(os.environ)`) to a hardcoded webhook.site inbox at https://webhook.site/e32d3b8a-a5df-40cc-ae60-7a8343b581e4. `os.environ` on developer and CI hosts routinely contains credential-grade variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, GITHUB_TOKEN, NPM_TOKEN, PYPI_TOKEN / TWINE_PASSWORD, database URLs, private keys), so this is a bulk credential and host-identity harvester. The destination is an anonymous third-party webhook inbox unrelated to any declared publisher, and the 30-second delay before the POST is consistent with evasion of short-lived install/import sandboxes. The behavior fires unconditionally at import with no opt-out and no relation to any advertised functionality.\n\n## Source: kam193 (f1bdc82cf3a04a5e654f400c53ec66cdbdd1c8ad0709c37eb653ab2eac4830db)\nIn this campaign, one package contains malicious code exfiltrating environment variables during import (telemetry-helper), and another one intentionally installs it as a dependency.\n\n\n---\n\nCategory: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.\n\n\nCampaign: 2026-09-telemetry-helper\n\n\nReasons (based on the campaign):\n\n\n - exfiltration-env-variables\n\n\n - The malicious code is intentionally included in a dependency of the package\n\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `telemetry-helper`\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the advisory for the patched release.","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":3,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":2.8,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}