MAL-2026-16098 Malicious code in bq-build-probe-vrp-2026 (PyPI)
Malicious package
Published
MAL-2026-16098 is a malicious package: bq-build-probe-vrp-2026 (PyPI). Every version was published to cause harm.
Task:
1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.
2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.
3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.
4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-16098/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-16098/index.md)
- Package
- bq-build-probe-vrp-2026
- Registry
- PyPI
What is MAL-2026-16098?
MAL-2026-16098 is a malicious package in bq-build-probe-vrp-2026, published on 9 Sep 2026.
Official description
setup.py executes at pip install and collects a full dump of os.environ, hostname, uid/gid, uname output, /proc/self/cgroup, /proc/version, and the GCE metadata service-account email (http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/email), plus sandbox-fingerprinting signals (docker socket presence at /var/run/docker.sock, outbound reachability via socket connect to 8.8.8.8:53). The collected data is written to _build_findings.json inside the installed package, and init.py exposes get_build_findings() to read it back. In a CI/build environment, os.environ typically contains build secrets (CI tokens, cloud credentials, service-account material); embedding that dump inside the built artifact and providing a retrieval API turns any subsequent import or redistribution of the wheel into a channel for the harvested secrets. The package's self-description as authorized VRP testing does not change the mechanism.
What should I do about MAL-2026-16098?
Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.