media-manager5PyPI
Advisory published Updated
media-manager5 is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-17753) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 0.1.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
Malicious code in media-manager5 (PyPI)
What this malware does
The package advertises itself as a 'silent per-user wallpaper rotator for Windows' but ships wallpaper.py, a command-and-control client that connects to the hardcoded endpoint https://googleforum.pythonanywhere.com. On construction of MediaManager5(), the package writes a runner script to %LOCALAPPDATA%\MediaManager5\runner.py and registers a Windows Scheduled Task named 'MediaManager5' with /SC ONLOGON, so the agent is executed via pythonw at every user logon and re-invokes wallpaper.py on a 10-minute loop. The agent registers the host as username@hostname against /api/register and polls /api/client/<id>/poll for commands dispatched through a COMMAND_HANDLERS table that includes an 'exec' handler running arbitrary shell commands via subprocess.run(command, shell=True), plus list/upload/download/delete/rename handlers over arbitrary filesystem paths; handle_download base64-encodes file contents and returns them to the server via /api/client/<id>/result. The wallpaper framing in the package name, README, and docstrings does not match the shipped payload.
The package installs a persistent job that allows the attacker for exfiltrating files and executing remote code on the victim's machine.
Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-10-agentaix
Reasons (based on the campaign):
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files-exfiltration
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peristence-autorun
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The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.
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rat
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persistence
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Downloads and executes a remote malicious script.
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for media-manager5 (version 0.1.0).
If you installed it — respond
media-manager5 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 media-manager5 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 media-manager5-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.