MAL-2026-16356 Malicious code in starlette-healthchecks (PyPI)

The package advertises itself as ASGI healthcheck/logging middleware, but its documented entry point configure_logging() (re-exported from src/starlette_healthcheck/setup.py via init.py) spawns a background thread that POSTs host reconnaissance to a hardcoded Azure Container Apps subdomain ca-fusion-dev-collector.victorioussmoke-2f009910.uksouth.azurecontainerapps.io, which the caller does not configure. The beacon iterates the entire os.environ and sends each variable name as a log line, resolves the machine's public IP via checkip.amazonaws.com, and sends the hostname. Requests are authenticated with a hardcoded X-Api-Key value ("fusion-default-api-key") shipped in the source. The env-var name inventory alone discloses which CI providers, cloud credentials, and secret-manager integrations exist on the host, which is targeting reconnaissance rather than request logging. Placing the exfiltration code in a module named setup.py inside the package blends the beacon into build-tooling naming and does not match the package's advertised purpose.

The package appears to be a typosquatting research attempt. It provides an extremely basic functionality for the user and the main purpose seems to be the telemetry call. Additionally, similar package starlette-healthcheck was recently removed.

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

Campaign: 2026-09-starlette-healthcheck

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• action-hidden-in-lib-usage

• typosquatting