---
id: MAL-2026-16356
title: Malicious code in starlette-healthchecks (PyPI)
summary: Malicious code in starlette-healthchecks (PyPI)
severity: critical
exploited: true
vendor: starlette-healthchecks
product: starlette-healthchecks
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - starlette-healthchecks
published: '2026-09-21'
updated: '2026-09-23'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-23T02:30:05.541387220Z'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-16356'
references:
  - url: 'https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/starlette-healthchecks'
  - url: 'https://pypi.org/project/starlette-healthchecks/1.3.2/'
  - url: 'https://pypi.org/project/starlette-healthchecks/1.3.1/'
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
  - malware
ingestedAt: '2026-09-22T07:15:17.284Z'
---

## Overview


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_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_

## Source: amazon-inspector (eebffb3f581b979c3e9a1dc0aef347111b50922326b2181cc9d2bc009c4e7021)
The package advertises itself as ASGI healthcheck/logging middleware, but its documented entry point configure_logging() (re-exported from src/starlette_healthcheck/setup.py via __init__.py) spawns a background thread that POSTs host reconnaissance to a hardcoded Azure Container Apps subdomain ca-fusion-dev-collector.victorioussmoke-2f009910.uksouth.azurecontainerapps.io, which the caller does not configure. The beacon iterates the entire os.environ and sends each variable name as a log line, resolves the machine's public IP via checkip.amazonaws.com, and sends the hostname. Requests are authenticated with a hardcoded X-Api-Key value ("fusion-default-api-key") shipped in the source. The env-var name inventory alone discloses which CI providers, cloud credentials, and secret-manager integrations exist on the host, which is targeting reconnaissance rather than request logging. Placing the exfiltration code in a module named setup.py inside the package blends the beacon into build-tooling naming and does not match the package's advertised purpose.

## Source: kam193 (13c2438df5dfe3675f8861c03c803a273747135af8a70fc916235ad64d6cd22f)
The package appears to be a typosquatting research attempt. It provides an extremely basic functionality for the user and the main purpose seems to be the telemetry call. Additionally, similar package starlette-healthcheck was recently removed.


---

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


Campaign: 2026-09-starlette-healthcheck


Reasons (based on the campaign):


 - action-hidden-in-lib-usage


 - typosquatting


## Affected packages

- `starlette-healthchecks`

## Remediation

Refer to the advisory for the patched release.