# MAL-2026-17703: Malicious code in kafka-roller (PyPI)


- **Type:** Malicious package
- **Package:** `kafka-roller` (PyPI)
- **Published:** 8 Oct 2026

## What is MAL-2026-17703?

MAL-2026-17703 is a malicious package in kafka-roller, published on 8 Oct 2026. 

### Official description

The package is published to PyPI under the name kafka-roller with metadata impersonating Tesla's teslamotors/kafka-helmsman project (homepage points at github.com/teslamotors/kafka-helmsman while the publisher is an unaffiliated account), and version 99.0.4 is pinned implausibly high — the dependency-confusion squat shape. setup.py starts a module-level daemon thread during pip's metadata/wheel build that collects hostname, current working directory, platform information, a timestamp and a UUID, and transmits them via HTTPS POST to https://webhook.site/bf5cb178-e0cf-43b6-8b1e-fb5d2f6ea9c9 and via HTTPS GET plus DNS lookups to a subdomain of oast.site (an interactsh out-of-band collector). The DNS channel is driven by subprocess invocations of nslookup/getent/dig against an attacker-chosen hostname, providing a secondary exfiltration path that bypasses HTTP egress filtering. The beacon fires on any pip processing of the sdist without installer consent, and leaks internal host and build-environment identifiers for any build system that misresolves the kafka-roller name to this PyPI package. A self-description as 'dependency-confusion security research' does not change the behavior: install-time out-of-band callbacks carrying host identifiers to attacker-controlled collectors are exfiltration regardless of framing.

Installing the package or importing the module exfiltrates basic information about the host, and the package has no other purpose.

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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: GENERIC-standard-pypi-install-pentest

Reasons (based on the campaign):

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

 - The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'kafka-roller' @ 99.0.0 (pypi) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

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

## What should I do about MAL-2026-17703?

Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
MAL-2026-17703 is a malicious package: kafka-roller (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-2026-17703/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17703/index.md)
```

## Sources

- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-17703

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-17703/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.