{"answers":{"affected":"1 open source package ship an affected version, including coldcard-helpers.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of MAL-2026-11516 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.","what":"MAL-2026-11516 is a malicious package in coldcard-helpers, published on 4 Aug 2026."},"fix_prompt":"MAL-2026-11516 is a malicious package: coldcard-helpers (PyPI). Every version was published to cause harm.\n\nTask:\n1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.\n3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.\n4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-11516/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-11516/index.md)","id":"MAL-2026-11516","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-11516/index.md","name":"MAL-2026-11516","record":{"aliases":[],"analysis":null,"analysis_generated_by":null,"assigner":null,"cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"The package presents itself as a helper for the Coldcard hardware wallet, but its actual behavior is credential and wallet theft. setup.py detects 'install' or 'develop' in sys.argv and starts a background thread that subprocess.Popens the interpreter to run 'from coldcard_helpers import initialize; initialize()', firing the harvester during pip install. coldcard_helpers/__init__.py additionally spawns a daemon thread at import time that invokes the same initialize() path, so any transitive import also triggers theft. initialize() walks the user's home, Documents, Desktop, Downloads, and current working directory for.env, mnemonic.txt, seed.txt, hardhat.config.js, and foundry.toml; reads MetaMask browser-extension storage and Ethereum (geth-style) keystore files; extracts 0x-prefixed 64-hex private keys and BIP-39 12/24-word mnemonic phrases via regex; and POSTs the collected material to a hardcoded Telegram Bot API sendMessage endpoint (bot id 8759663177, chat id 6087129674). The name resembles legitimate Coldcard tooling but no Coldcard-related functionality is present.\n\nWhen installing the package or importing the module, code starts a background task collecting sensitive data, like sensitive environment variables, private keys for cryptocurrency wallets, SSH keys, and so on to a Telegram channel.\n\n---\n\nCategory: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.\n\nCampaign: 2026-08-coldcard-helpers\n\nReasons (based on the campaign):\n\n - exfiltration-env-variables\n\n - exfiltration-ssh-keys\n\n - exfiltration-crypto\n\n - exfiltration-credentials\n\n - uses-telegram-bot\n\n - The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.","ecosystems":["PyPI"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":null,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":null,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":null,"nuclei":null,"refs":[],"tier":null},"has_fix":false,"headline":"Malicious code in coldcard-helpers (PyPI)","id":"MAL-2026-11516","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"malicious","links":{"ecosystem":"PyPI","product":null,"products":[],"type":null,"year":"2026"},"n_packages":1,"n_references":null,"packages":[{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":[],"introduced":[],"last_affected":[],"package":"coldcard-helpers","purl":"pkg:pypi/coldcard-helpers","source":"MAL-2026-11516"}],"products":null,"published":"2026-08-04","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"Apache-2.0","name":"OpenSSF Malicious Packages","prefix":"MAL"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":null,"updated":null,"vendors":null},"summary":null,"url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-11516/"}