What does the acloud-clients malware do?

This campaign is built from two parts: 1) packages named like time-check-server, snapshot-photo contain an innocent-looking code that sends "date" to a remote server, 2) packages named like alicloud-client are clones of legit aliyun-python-sdk-core package, with a small change in the client.py code, where it imports the time-check-server and calls it, but instead of a date, the credentials to the cloud are exfiltrated. There are also variations with AWS clients Apparently, the campaign started at least 2 years ago with the snapshot-photo package containing the same functionality as the newer time-check-server (see https://github.com/pypi-data/pypi-mirror-238/blob/code/packages/snapshot-phot

Which versions of acloud-clients are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of acloud-clients are flagged malicious: 1.0.0, 1.0.1. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate acloud-clients if I installed it?

acloud-clients is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.

I already installed acloud-clients — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If acloud-clients was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.

Is acloud-clients part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — acloud-clients is associated with the 2025-02-alicloud-client campaign. Packages in the same campaign often share infrastructure and payloads, so check whether any related packages are also in your dependency tree.

How do I find acloud-clients across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for acloud-clients (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging acloud-clients across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

acloud-clientsPyPI

Malicious code in acloud-clients (PyPI) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

MAL-2025-191673

Immediate action

Remove the package, then rotate any secrets the build/runtime could reach.

pip uninstall acloud-clients

What this malware does

This campaign is built from two parts:

packages named like time-check-server, snapshot-photo contain an innocent-looking code that sends "date" to a remote server,
packages named like alicloud-client are clones of legit aliyun-python-sdk-core package, with a small change in the client.py code, where it imports the time-check-server and calls it, but instead of a date, the credentials to the cloud are exfiltrated. There are also variations with AWS clients

Apparently, the campaign started at least 2 years ago with the snapshot-photo package containing the same functionality as the newer time-check-server (see https://github.com/pypi-data/pypi-mirror-238/blob/code/packages/snapshot-photo/snapshot_photo-0.0.3-py3-none-any.whl/snapshot_photo/date_format.py).

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

Campaign: 2025-02-alicloud-client

Reasons (based on the campaign):

clones-real-package
action-hidden-in-lib-usage
The malicious code is intentionally included in a dependency of the package
exfiltration-cloud-tokens

Malicious versions

2 flagged

1.0.01.0.1

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

46dfd1e4168fb5aa7e48693d252de6884b88a67b1be45600bcfbe294bb4ca0d3

89813876cca364b0dffda624005d527aa3c9f54ea7ce20af8186faf8f374ba6f

c2c78daea9a1be9a06f2234d5bbf333f5bf4df0b6e0f45ac2a4ffaf62a1c42bc

9f549adaca1f78175dd7ee0f6f2f4604888a320a1e61dd36b6064e8f85918a2f

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for acloud-clients (2 malicious versions). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging acloud-clients across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
acloud-clients is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.
Did it already run?
If acloud-clients was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.
How O3 protects you
O3 blocks acloud-clients before install through its supply-chain scanner, and if it has already run, detects and severs the exfiltration or C2 callback at runtime through L7 egress monitoring and eBPF.

Frequently asked questions

No. acloud-clients on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (versions 1.0.0, 1.0.1 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

2025-02-alicloud-client

References

Credits

Kamil Mańkowski (kam193)

Detect & block this

O3 blocks acloud-clients-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring