equestPyPI
Advisory published Updated
equest is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-6289) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 0.0.1). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in equest (PyPI)
What this malware does
The package name equest is a one-character deletion of the widely-used requests package and ships no functional library code. setup.py registers custom install and egg_info cmdclasses so that on pip install or pip download, the package collects the full process environment (os.environ serialized as key=value pairs) and the output of ps -elf, then POSTs both to http://gjampdwmdjmppwedtkpbbdkq05f6iiz6r.oast.fun via curl over plaintext HTTP. The destination is an Interactsh (oast.fun) collector subdomain controlled by the publisher. Any CI/build secrets present in the installer's environment at install time (cloud credentials, registry tokens, GitHub tokens, database credentials) are leaked to the attacker, and the running process list reveals additional host context. The README self-describes the package as a proof-of-concept of arbitrary code execution via pip install.
During installation, the package exfiltrates env variables
Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-06-ip-rotat
Reasons (based on the campaign):
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The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.
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exfiltration-env-variables
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typosquatting
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for equest (version 0.0.1).
If you installed it — respond
equest 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 equest 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 equest-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.