MAL-2026-17756 Malicious code in pafer (PyPI)

In this campaign, the main package (webreader) has an embeded pickle disguised as a config. A related dependency (pafer) contains code to load the pickle. During unpickling, malicious code embeded in the pickle file is automatically executed. It then establishes persistence via a PTH file and downloads the next stage payload. It finally acts like a RAT, allowing remote exfiltration and code execution.

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

Campaign: 2026-10-webreader

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• rat

• Downloads and executes a remote malicious script.

• obfuscation

• The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.

• abuses-pth

• persistence

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

• files-exfiltration