MAL-2026-14341 Malicious code in reqcrypts (PyPI)

reqcrypts is published as a drop-in HTTP client (import reqcrypts; reqcrypts.get(url)) but its RequestHandler wraps every JSON response through a PayloadManager that base64-decodes a _payload field from the response body and passes it to exec() on the caller's Python interpreter, then deletes the field to hide the execution. Payload execution and silent mode are on by default. Any HTTP server the caller reaches (including MITM or redirect targets) can therefore run arbitrary Python code on the installer's host by returning a JSON body containing a _payload key. The package additionally exports top-level add_payload(trigger, code), set_default_payload(code), and enable_payloads helpers that store arbitrary Python source and feed it to the same exec() sink when a request endpoint matches the registered trigger, giving a second covert code-execution path. The docstring describes this as 'automatic silent payload execution'. Any application using reqcrypts as its HTTP client is exposed to remote code execution from any responding server.

The package contains a hidden backdoor. The promised functionality is an HTTP request library with some additional functions. On every usage, code secretly checks for the presence of specific fields in the response, and if they are found, their content is secretly executed.

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

Campaign: 2026-08-reqcrypt

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• backdoor