MAL-2026-13732 Malicious code in joule-btp-extension (PyPI)

On pip install, setup.py runs a collect_and_exfiltrate() routine that reads /private/etc/passwd, /private/etc/hosts, and /private/etc/sudoers; captures selected environment variables (HOME, USER, LOGNAME, VIRTUAL_ENV, PATH, PIP_CACHE_DIR, npm_config_prefix, GIT_EDITOR); recursively globs the installer's $HOME and current working directory and reads up to 4096 bytes of each file; and additionally invokes os.system("cat /private/etc/passwd"). The collected data is JSON-serialized and POSTed via urllib to a hardcoded ATTACKER_URL (currently the placeholder http://127.0.0.1:4445/collect, with an author comment 'replace before deploying') using a spoofed 'User-Agent: pip/23.0' header to blend with pip traffic, and all exceptions are silently swallowed. setup.py also writes a marker file '.joule-btp-extension-was-here' into $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin, demonstrating write access to the installer's virtualenv bin directory for persistence. The package's own docstring declares it a proof-of-concept sandbox-escape supply-chain attack targeting SAP Joule Desktop on macOS; the PoC framing does not change what the code does on install: it harvests installer files and identity data and beacons them off-host.

During installation, the code exfiltrates basic information and exfiltrates more information to a localhost service as well as starts a reverse shell there. It seems to be an internal test that was uploaded to a public repository.

Category: PROBABLY_PENTEST - Packages looking like typical pentest packages, but also anything that looks like testing, exploring pre-prepared kits, research & co, with clearly low-harm possibilities.

Campaign: 2026-08-joule-btp-extension

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• The package contains code to create a reverse shell, allowing an attacker to execute any commands on the victim's machine.

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

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'joule-btp-extension' @ 0.1.6 (pypi) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

• The package communicates with a domain associated with malicious activity.