Malicious code in flasq (PyPI)

Overview

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Source: amazon-inspector (79bdf17d9c07586ddc0b7121037c2c10019d7be01d2dd49685680a8e876342c6)

setup.py registers a custom install cmdclass whose post-install hook is stored as a base64-encoded blob and decoded+exec'd at install time. On Linux, the decoded hook uses urllib.request.urlretrieve to download a binary from https://github.com/totti2188/8gp1Q7iZD3h4VW/releases/download/v1.3A/something, writes it to /tmp/something, chmods it 0755, and spawns it detached via subprocess.Popen(..., start_new_session=True). The download source is an unrelated personal GitHub account; there is no hash or signature verification; and the base64-obfuscation of an install-time code path is an evasion signal. The package advertises itself as 'HTTP client utilities' — this behavior is unrelated to that purpose. The setup.py also defaults the published PyPI name to 'requestss' (name=os.environ.get('PYPI_PACKAGE_NAME', 'requestss')), a one-character typosquat of the popular 'requests' package, indicating the artifact is intended to reach developers mistyping 'requests'.

Source: kam193 (2498f9d207b216ad7438cd262c9136cc5453d288f97a74d4cd44a9a2accf9141)

Package imitates name of a popula library. During installation, obfuscated code downloads a malicious executable and starts it. It then exfiltrates at least cryptocurrency wallet data, probably more.

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Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.

Campaign: 2026-08-flasq

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• typosquatting

• The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.

• exfiltration-generic

• Downloads and executes a remote executable.

• obfuscation

• exfiltration-crypto

Affected packages

• flasq

Remediation

Refer to the advisory for the patched release.