Which versions of facewareretargeter are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of facewareretargeter are flagged malicious: 9.9.9. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate facewareretargeter if I installed it?

Remove facewareretargeter 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 facewareretargeter — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If facewareretargeter 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.

Is facewareretargeter part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — facewareretargeter is associated with the 2026-10-vacsdk, IN-MAL-2026-021564 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 facewareretargeter across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for facewareretargeter (version 9.9.9).

Malicious package

facewareretargeterPyPI

Advisory published Oct 20, 2026Updated Oct 22, 2026

facewareretargeter is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-18110) that executes malicious code on install (malicious version 9.9.9). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in facewareretargeter (PyPI)

MAL-2026-18110

Immediate action

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

pip uninstall facewareretargeter

What this malware does

facewareretargeter 9.9.9 ships a 2-line stub module and a setup.py whose install_requires declares a single dependency, tracer-batch-stream-chain, sourced from a direct https URL (https://artifacts.vacsdk.com/pypi/tracer_batch_stream_chain-9.9.9.tar.gz) rather than a PyPI version range. On pip install facewareretargeter, pip fetches that tarball from the non-PyPI host and executes its setup.py / build backend on the installer's machine, with no version pin, no hash, and no integrity check. The host is not a known Python index and is unrelated to any declared repository or homepage, so whoever controls artifacts.vacsdk.com can deliver arbitrary code to every installer at any time. The package name resembles a plausible internal/private tool and uses an implausibly high version (9.9.9), which is the dependency-confusion shape used to win resolution against an internal package.

The package uses fake http-downloaded dependencies to track downloads, and has no other purpose.

Category: PROBABLY_PENTEST - Packages looking like typical pentest packages, but also anything that looks like testing, exploring pre-prepared kits, research & co, with clearly low-harm possibilities.

Campaign: 2026-10-vacsdk

Reasons (based on the campaign):

dependency-confusion

Malicious versions

1 flagged

9.9.9

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

3d3c954fb5fd6d1ddfc1d5e22129468136fb43fe78c6d69f0df134925b6a8b08

afcd41ab1e378f4c7d767acb2b9e9199a4276e125d6e84aba3627bf37c879f24

Detection & response playbook

Malicious package

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for facewareretargeter (version 9.9.9).
If you installed it — respond
Remove facewareretargeter 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 facewareretargeter 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

No. facewareretargeter on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (version 9.9.9 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

2026-10-vacsdkIN-MAL-2026-021564

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder
Kamil Mańkowski (kam193) · reporter

Detect & block this

O3 blocks facewareretargeter-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

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database