MAL-2026-10908 Malicious code in hello-world-test-mh3 (PyPI)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-10908 is a malicious package: hello-world-test-mh3 (PyPI). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-10908/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-10908/index.md)
- Package
- hello-world-test-mh3
- Registry
- PyPI
What is MAL-2026-10908?
MAL-2026-10908 is a malicious package in hello-world-test-mh3, published on 20 Jul 2026.
Official description
Package is a trivial hello-world test artifact. setup.py contains an exec(base64.b64decode(…)) call at install time, but the decoded payload is a single print() statement with no network, filesystem, or credential side effects. src/hello_world/init.py defines a _remote_update() function whose urlopen+exec branch is guarded by a constant _SIMULATE_ONLY=True, making the network-fetch-and-exec branch statically unreachable; the reachable branch only execs a local print string. No outbound network occurs, no installer secrets are read, and no attacker-controlled code or destination is referenced. The exec+base64 and import-time fetch-and-exec shapes are present as structural patterns only, with no installer-side harm.
What should I do about MAL-2026-10908?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.