Which versions of faest are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of faest are flagged malicious: 0.14.6. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate faest if I installed it?

faest 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.

I already installed faest — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If faest 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 faest part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — faest is associated with the 2024-09-old-faest 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 faest across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for faest (version 0.14.6).

Malicious package

faestPyPI

Advisory published Sep 25, 2024Updated Dec 12, 2025

faest is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2024-12269) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 0.14.6). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in faest (PyPI)

MAL-2024-12269

Immediate action

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

pip uninstall faest

What this malware does

When using this library to do any request, a "validate_origin" function is called (L1320 in _client.py). This method, located in _utils.py, collects all request data, tries also read /etc/shadow using Docker container, and sends them to an endpoint controlled by the package author.

The package seems to be a clone of httpx and also informs in the README that it's a malicious library, as so, it seems to be a malicious research attempts.

Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.

Campaign: 2024-09-old-faest

Reasons (based on the campaign):

exfiltration-generic
action-hidden-in-lib-usage
clones-real-package

Malicious versions

1 flagged

0.14.6

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

f14be620ed15757151031493799128ccd109c45077a8f9864ab8a9b2c0a8a0c1

f66b290465d72fc55bce4fef4200ebea68c430be84cdcbbabec5263958041781

4b9b50f96aa5c969ee30095a332d27eb0bc4ac15eaaab90e910a9c9c7f7f7e28

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for faest (version 0.14.6).
If you installed it — respond
faest 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 faest 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. faest on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (version 0.14.6 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

2024-09-old-faest

References

bad-packages.kam193.eu

Credits

Kamil Mańkowski (kam193)

Detect & block this

O3 blocks faest-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database