coldcard-helpersPyPI
coldcard-helpers is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-11516) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 1.4.2). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in coldcard-helpers (PyPI)
What this malware does
The package presents itself as a helper for the Coldcard hardware wallet, but its actual behavior is credential and wallet theft. setup.py detects 'install' or 'develop' in sys.argv and starts a background thread that subprocess.Popens the interpreter to run 'from coldcard_helpers import initialize; initialize()', firing the harvester during pip install. coldcard_helpers/init.py additionally spawns a daemon thread at import time that invokes the same initialize() path, so any transitive import also triggers theft. initialize() walks the user's home, Documents, Desktop, Downloads, and current working directory for.env, mnemonic.txt, seed.txt, hardhat.config.js, and foundry.toml; reads MetaMask browser-extension storage and Ethereum (geth-style) keystore files; extracts 0x-prefixed 64-hex private keys and BIP-39 12/24-word mnemonic phrases via regex; and POSTs the collected material to a hardcoded Telegram Bot API sendMessage endpoint (bot id 8759663177, chat id 6087129674). The name resembles legitimate Coldcard tooling but no Coldcard-related functionality is present.
When installing the package or importing the module, code starts a background task collecting sensitive data, like sensitive environment variables, private keys for cryptocurrency wallets, SSH keys, and so on to a Telegram channel.
Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-08-coldcard-helpers
Reasons (based on the campaign):
-
exfiltration-env-variables
-
exfiltration-ssh-keys
-
exfiltration-crypto
-
exfiltration-credentials
-
uses-telegram-bot
-
The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for coldcard-helpers (version 1.4.2). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging coldcard-helpers across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
coldcard-helpers 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 coldcard-helpers 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 coldcard-helpers 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
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
- Kamil Mańkowski (kam193) · reporter
Detect & block this
O3 blocks coldcard-helpers-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.