{"answers":{"affected":"1 open source package ship an affected version, including pafex.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of MAL-2026-18094 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Remove the package from your dependencies and lockfiles, then rotate any secrets on machines where it was installed.","what":"MAL-2026-18094 is a malicious package in pafex, published on 20 Oct 2026."},"fix_prompt":"MAL-2026-18094 is a malicious package: pafex (PyPI). Every version was published to cause harm.\n\nTask:\n1. Search this repository's dependency manifests and lockfiles for the package, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If it is present, remove it, regenerate the lockfile with the project's package manager, and replace whatever it was used for.\n3. List any CI runners, developer machines or containers that installed it, so their secrets can be rotated.\n4. If the package is not used anywhere, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-18094/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-18094/index.md)","id":"MAL-2026-18094","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-18094/index.md","name":"MAL-2026-18094","record":{"aliases":[],"analysis":null,"analysis_generated_by":null,"assigner":null,"cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"No install-time or import-time network I/O, credential access, subprocess execution, or other installer-harm behavior was observed in this package version. No lifecycle hooks performing privileged or external actions, no.pth side effects, and no evidence of exfiltration, dropper, backdoor, or silent-relay patterns.\n\nIn this campaign, the main package (resion) has an embeded pickle disguised as a config. A related dependency (pafex) 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. During analysis, the final remote payload was just a stub\n\n---\n\nCategory: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.\n\nCampaign: 2026-10-webreader\n\nReasons (based on the campaign):\n\n - files-exfiltration\n\n - obfuscation\n\n - The malicious code is intentionally included in a dependency of the package\n\n - Downloads and executes a remote malicious script.\n\n - The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.\n\n - rat\n\n - persistence\n\n - abuses-pth","ecosystems":["PyPI"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":null,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":null,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":null,"nuclei":null,"refs":[],"tier":null},"has_fix":false,"headline":"Malicious code in pafex (PyPI)","id":"MAL-2026-18094","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"malicious","links":{"ecosystem":"PyPI","product":null,"products":[],"type":null,"year":"2026"},"n_packages":1,"n_references":null,"packages":[{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":[],"introduced":[],"last_affected":[],"package":"pafex","purl":"pkg:pypi/pafex","source":"MAL-2026-18094"}],"products":null,"published":"2026-10-20","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"Apache-2.0","name":"OpenSSF Malicious Packages","prefix":"MAL"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":null,"updated":null,"vendors":null},"summary":null,"url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/MAL-2026-18094/"}