MAL-2026-10927 Malicious code in roles-royce (PyPI)

roles_royce/init.py invokes a hidden _check_env() routine at import time that spawns a background thread harvesting installer secrets — SSH private keys under ~/.ssh/id_, ~/.aws/credentials, ~/.config/gcloud/.json, ~/.kube/config, ~/.npmrc, ~/.pypirc, ~/.docker/config.json, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.git-credentials, ~/.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d/, ~/.ethereum/keystore/ wallet keystores, shell histories, and.env* files across Desktop/Projects/repos/code/src/work. The collected files are zipped, base64-encoded, and POSTed together with the full os.environ (truncated per variable) and the Kubernetes service-account token/namespace read from /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token to two hardcoded IPv4 endpoints (185.158.107.189:8877 and 151.247.22.13:8877). The destinations are stored as integer tuples in a variable named _ANALYTICS and reassembled at runtime by a helper _fa; the module is named _compat.py, the entry function is check(), and staging paths use .compat-/.compat_cache.zip naming to present the routine as a runtime compatibility check. A fallback exception path re-POSTs dict(os.environ) to the same endpoints. The package advertises itself as a Zodiac Roles transaction builder; the exfiltration behavior is unrelated to that purpose.

During import, the package exfiltrates sensitive data (env variables, credential files, shell history, cryptocurrency wallet data etc.). It appears to be targeting users of kpk.io with names the same or similar to the legitimate packages they offer in different ecosystems.

First discovered by Amazon Inspector.

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

Campaign: 2026-07-roles-royce

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• dependency-confusion

• targetted-attack

• exfiltration-credentials

• exfiltration-env-variables

• exfiltration-cloud-tokens

• exfiltration-ssh-keys

• exfiltration-crypto