chaintestPyPI
Advisory published Updated
chaintest is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-13686) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 0.1.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in chaintest (PyPI)
What this malware does
chaintest 0.1.0 on PyPI could not be fully characterized from the available artifacts. No concrete a static rule matches and no traced code evidence are available to identify a specific installer-harm mechanism (no named exfiltration endpoint, no install-time fetch-and-execute path, no credential-read path, no lifecycle-script behavior) in this record. Without a specific observed behavior to cite, the package's disposition is unresolved.
The package contains a cryptocurrency infostealer that exfiltrates information from browsers (including cryptowallet extensions, synced extensions, local storage) and standalone applications (password managers, cryptowallets). The code achieves persistence via different methods on different platforms, and runs a keylogger that modifies the copied cryptocurrency addresses with addresses controlled by the attacker. Malicious code is also prepared to retrieve commands to execute from C2, exfiltrate SSH keys, and install malicious extensions in browsers.
The code shares some similarities with campaign 2026-07-cognikit attributed to the DPRK "Contagious Interview" campaign.
Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-08-chaintest
Reasons (based on the campaign):
-
infostealer
-
clipboard-stealing
-
dependency-confusion
-
crypto-related
-
keylogger
-
exfiltration-browser-data
-
exfiltration-crypto
-
clipboard-modify
-
persistence
-
The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.
-
exfiltration-ssh-keys
-
files-exfiltration
-
rat
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for chaintest (version 0.1.0).
If you installed it — respond
chaintest 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 chaintest was installed, its post-install payload may already have run. Removing the package does not undo that — check outbound connections and credential use from the install window onward.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
- Kamil Mańkowski (kam193) · reporter
Detect & block this
O3 blocks chaintest-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.