MAL-2026-4773 Malicious code in vlifegram (PyPI)

VLifeGram is published under its own name on PyPI but installs into the pyrogram/ namespace and ships a Pyrogram fork at version 2.1.2.4. It adds an undocumented module pyrogram/helpers/secret.py. In pyrogram/methods/utilities/start.py (around line 73), Client.start() imports pyrogram.helpers.secret and invokes secret.init(self) whenever the running account is a bot. secret.init registers hidden Telegram message handlers gated by a hardcoded operator list OWNERS = [842320686, 845521076, 1675073032] (secret.py:91). The /asu and /wann commands pass message text to exec(compile(...)), executing arbitrary Python in the bot process; /asi and /wann2 pass message text to subprocess.run(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]), giving full shell access on the host running the bot. Because the package installs into the pyrogram namespace, any existing project that does from pyrogram import Client will silently load this backdoored fork once VLifeGram is present in the environment, with no code change required. Network channel for command-and-control is Telegram itself (the same connection the legitimate library opens), so the backdoor blends into normal bot traffic. The three hardcoded operator IDs gain persistent remote Python and shell execution on every host that starts a bot using this library.