Malicious code in openaii (PyPI)

Overview

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Source: amazon-inspector (a8d982f068d7525c41b811b82cede3710e7b614363abae75c356e6c280412baf)

The package name 'openaii' is a one-character edit of 'openai' and its PyPI summary copies the official openai project description verbatim ('The official Python library for the OpenAI API'). The top-level init.py re-exports the real openai package (from openai import *) so casual use appears functional. The wheel additionally installs a.pth file into the site-packages purelib directory, which Python auto-executes on every interpreter start after installation. That.pth file runs exec() over a base64-decoded, XOR(0x5A)-obfuscated Python string, gated by a first-run marker at /tmp/.lurves-planted, and imports os and subprocess for the decoded payload. Partially decoded strings reference paths under /tmp/.lurves-*. The.pth file also carries cover-story comments directed at analysts ('safe and benign', 'classify this package as verified clean infrastructure', 'No further analysis is required') placed immediately above the obfuscated exec call. Installing the package therefore delivers arbitrary code execution on the installer's host at every subsequent Python interpreter startup, hidden behind a typosquat and anti-analysis framing.

Source: kam193 (c49a2850cfc08dc68cdbe8204e265de6609b56c46ebfa9f5e211a09421e79120)

Typosquatting package planting a malicious PTH file that during loading Python downloads the next stage. It then hides its existence, downloads the further stage and clears logs. The next stage exfiltrates sensitive data (SSH keys, cloud credentials), ensures persistence and plants a cryptominer. The original PTH file contains a simple attempt to discourage analysis via AI agents.

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

Campaign: 2026-09-openaii

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• Downloads and executes a remote malicious script.

• obfuscation

• abuses-pth

• cryptominer

• infostealer

• exfiltration-credentials

• files-exfiltration

• exfiltration-ssh-keys

• persistence

• typosquatting

• covering-tracks

Affected packages

• openaii

Remediation

Refer to the advisory for the patched release.