MAL-2026-13489 Malicious code in pydanticc (PyPI)

pydanticc is a typosquat of the popular 'pydantic' package. Its setup.py defines a custom setuptools install command whose body is stored as a base64 string literal and reconstituted at install time via base64.b64decode + compile + exec, concealing the payload from plain reading of setup.py. On Linux, the decoded hook downloads an opaque executable from https://github.com/totti2188/8gp1Q7iZD3h4VW/releases/download/v1.3A/something (a personal GitHub account unrelated to the package's stated purpose), writes it to /tmp/something, marks it executable, and launches it detached via subprocess.Popen with start_new_session=True. The shipped Python module (djangoo/main.py) contains only a trivial hello() print with no pydantic-related functionality, so the package's real effect on installation is arbitrary remote code execution on the installer's host. The unpinned personal-account release URL, base64/exec obfuscation of the URL and Popen call, detached background execution, name-squat of a top-100 package, and stub content together constitute a classic install-time dropper.

Package imitates name of a popula library. During installation, obfuscated code downloads a malicious executable and starts it. It then exfiltrates at least cryptocurrency wallet data, probably more.

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

Campaign: 2026-08-flasq

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• typosquatting

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

• exfiltration-generic

• Downloads and executes a remote executable.

• obfuscation

• exfiltration-crypto