hello-world-test-mh2PyPI
Advisory published Updated
hello-world-test-mh2 is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-10907) 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 hello-world-test-mh2 (PyPI)
What this malware does
setup.py decodes a base64 string and passes the result to exec() at install time. The decoded payload is a single print() statement that emits a benign string. A sibling _exfiltrate() function imports socket and urllib.request but the imported modules are never invoked; the function only prints the local platform name. There is no outbound network I/O, no reads of installer secrets or environment variables, no filesystem persistence beyond what pip itself performs, and no follow-on code execution. The package presents itself as a scanner-test artifact and behaves accordingly. The use of exec() on a base64 blob is poor practice (it matches the shape of install-time droppers and will trip pattern-based scanners), but the decoded content here is inert and confers no benefit to the publisher.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for hello-world-test-mh2 (version 0.0.1).
If you installed it — respond
hello-world-test-mh2 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 hello-world-test-mh2 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
- ReversingLabs · finder
Detect & block this
O3 blocks hello-world-test-mh2-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.