Malicious code in boto4 (PyPI)

Overview

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Source: amazon-inspector (d3f621c5e2e8e94d1c8ae2ae176d4d882711536d25199df7a1cdddd410214faa)

setup.py defines a custom setuptools install command (EjecutaElf) that base64-decodes a ~17MB embedded Linux ELF, writes it to /tmp/.systemd-helper, chmods 0755, and spawns it via subprocess.Popen during pip install on Linux. The tarball's importable package is a stub named reques with an empty init.py, and PKG-INFO advertises the project as an HTTP library for humans (unofficial fix) authored by Anonymous, requiring requests — a cover story that lures installers looking for a requests-related fix while the sole functional behavior is native-code execution on the installer's host at install time. Package name boto4 and internal directory reques are lookalikes for boto3/requests.

Source: kam193 (b928f1f0d3af6242391cc626a8601d24f60c70d862bfebe6cfe0777c13a8c0b2)

During installation, package executes an embedded executable. The executable is capable of executing remote commands, establishing persistence, cryptomining, exfiltrating basic data, further network scanning and worm-style propagation. Actions are controlled via a Telegram bot.

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

Campaign: 2026-08-boto4

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• cryptominer

• worm

• network-scan

• The package contains code to exfiltrate basic data from the system, like IP or username. It has a limited risk.

• uses-telegram-bot

• persistence

• The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.

Affected packages

• boto4

Remediation

Refer to the advisory for the patched release.