MAL-2026-15828 Malicious code in env-validator-tool (PyPI)

The package ships no source module (only egg-info metadata) despite declaring a console_script entrypoint 'env-validator=env_validator.cli:main' that references a non-existent env_validator/ directory. Its setup.py install_requires declares 'telemetry-helper' — an unpinned, generically-named PyPI dependency — with an inline author comment reading 'Legitimate dependency with payload'. Because the package itself contains no code, the sole effect of pip install env-validator-tool is resolving and installing whatever code is published under the 'telemetry-helper' name, which then executes on the installer's machine during install. The self-labeled 'payload' comment combined with the missing implementation, unpinned generic dependency name, and stub entrypoint indicates the package is a lure whose only purpose is to pull in the sibling drop package.

In this campaign, one package contains malicious code exfiltrating environment variables during import (telemetry-helper), and another one intentionally installs it as a dependency.

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

Campaign: 2026-09-telemetry-helper

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• exfiltration-env-variables

• The malicious code is intentionally included in a dependency of the package