Which versions of faiss-cpu-avx512 are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of faiss-cpu-avx512 are flagged malicious: 1.9.0, 1.9.1, 1.9.2, 1.9.3, 1.9.4, 1.9.5, 1.9.6, 1.9.7. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate faiss-cpu-avx512 if I installed it?

faiss-cpu-avx512 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 faiss-cpu-avx512 — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If faiss-cpu-avx512 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.

How do I find faiss-cpu-avx512 across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for faiss-cpu-avx512 (8 malicious versions).

Malicious package

faiss-cpu-avx512PyPI

Advisory published Sep 14, 2026Updated Sep 16, 2026

faiss-cpu-avx512 is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-16203) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious versions 1.9.0, 1.9.1, 1.9.2…). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in faiss-cpu-avx512 (PyPI)

MAL-2026-16203

Immediate action

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

pip uninstall faiss-cpu-avx512

What this malware does

[email protected] through 1.9.7 on PyPI impersonates faiss-cpu and ships no FAISS code: faiss_cpu_avx512/init.py _fetch_native() downloads an xz-compressed binary from https://files.catbox.moe/ (ffoa50.xz in 1.9.0 to 1.9.3, 0oreqo.xz in 1.9.4, vwfr94.xz in 1.9.5, 3l3x0v.xz in 1.9.6, weu5u2.xz in 1.9.7), writes it to ~/.cache/faiss_cpu_avx512/bin/indexwrm with mode 0755 and runs it through subprocess.Popen(start_new_session=True), restarting it every 5 seconds for the life of the process. It triggers on a call to warmup() or start(); nothing runs on install or import, and the ARTIFACT_SHA256 constant is the string PENDING_BUILD so the advertised checksum check never executes. 1.9.0 to 1.9.3 reach the download only on hosts whose nvidia-smi reports compute capability 9 or 10; 1.9.4 onward download on every host and start one worker per GPU, and the code comments describe the binary as carrying a baked-in pool, wallet and relay and renaming its process to a vllm serve command line. We read all eight wheels between 2026-09-11 and 2026-09-14 and did not retrieve or run the binary.

Malicious versions

8 flagged

1.9.01.9.11.9.21.9.31.9.41.9.51.9.61.9.7

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for faiss-cpu-avx512 (8 malicious versions).
If you installed it — respond
faiss-cpu-avx512 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 faiss-cpu-avx512 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. faiss-cpu-avx512 on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (versions 1.9.0, 1.9.1, 1.9.2, 1.9.3, 1.9.4, 1.9.5, 1.9.6, 1.9.7 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

References

pkgwarden.com

Credits

pkgwarden · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks faiss-cpu-avx512-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