MAL-2024-12372 Malicious code in zip-me (PyPI)

During installation, the package collects quite extensive information about the host and has no other purpose. To avoid detection, the real code is put in a ZIP archive and includes also some VM-detection techniques. The malicious code is activated via metaclass set for the "install" command class in setup.py

Over the time, techniques used in packages are slightly changing, including that some of marked packages don't have malicious part, but rather are used only for tests.

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

Campaign: 2024-12-langer-updater

Reasons (based on the campaign):

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

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

• exfiltration-env-variables

• The package contains code to detect if it is running in a sandbox environment.