{"id":"MAL-2026-17325","title":"Malicious code in cleanup-string (PyPI)","summary":"Malicious code in cleanup-string (PyPI)","severity":"critical","exploited":true,"vendor":"cleanup-string","product":"cleanup-string","ecosystem":"pip","affected":["cleanup-string"],"published":"2026-09-30","updated":"2026-09-30","sourceUpdated":"2026-09-30T05:00:07.988002069Z","source":"OSV","sourceUrl":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-17325","references":[{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/cleanup-string/1.0.0/"}],"tags":["osv","pip","malware"],"ingestedAt":"2026-09-30T07:22:02.074Z","slug":"MAL-2026-17325","body":"## Overview\n\n\n---\n_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_\n\n## Source: amazon-inspector (844c5afa9f00c02149f4f6314447c5738e04ed419014809c1df83f31aa012525)\nThe package advertises itself as a pure-Python string helper (strip, slugify, case conversion, whitespace collapse) and its README states the implementation is standard-library only. However, `cleanup_string/__init__.py` performs `from._impl import cleanup`, which loads a 1.3 MB Windows-only native extension `cleanup_string/_impl.cp313-win_amd64.vmp.pyd` (sha256 980ae204f04f9a7e68666670eb5b236bc7347d0111697df1015de665fd1a1712). The filename embeds the VMProtect convention `.vmp` and the binary matches that packer's signature: the only readable strings are Win32 API imports (LoadLibraryA, GetModuleHandleA, HeapAlloc, DisableThreadLibraryCalls, ExitProcess, KERNEL32.dll, VCRUNTIME140.dll) and the remaining ~1.3 MB is high-entropy virtualized code. VMProtect exists to defeat static and dynamic analysis; the trivial advertised functionality has no legitimate need for a virtualized native module. Any Windows Python 3.13 environment that imports `cleanup_string` executes this opaque, anti-analysis-protected code with the privileges of the importing process.\n\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `cleanup-string`\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the advisory for the patched release.","depth":"abyssal","depthScore":70,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":52.3,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":18,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}