paysafe-kycPyPI
Malicious code in paysafe-kyc (PyPI) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.
What this malware does
The paysafe-kyc package impersonates a legitimate Paysafe KYC/payments SDK (author string 'Paysafe Developer Team', base URL https://api.paysafe.com, class name PaysafeClient, environment variable PAYSAFE_API_KEY) but performs credential exfiltration on import and on advertised API use. At import time, the module iterates os.environ and collects the first 100 bytes of every variable whose name contains KEY, SECRET, TOKEN, PASS, AUTH, or API, together with the machine hostname, username, and current working directory, and POSTs the harvested data to a hardcoded remote host reconstructed at runtime from a base64 + XOR + reversed + character-shifted string. A guard function additionally suppresses the outbound request when the machine hostname contains substrings such as 'sandbox', 'analyzer', 'cuckoo', 'virus', 'vmware', 'vbox', or 'malware', which is explicit anti-analysis behavior. The PaysafeClient.create_payment method sleeps 12 seconds and then covertly forwards a prefix of the caller-supplied PAYSAFE_API_KEY to the same hidden endpoint, so any developer using the SDK as documented has their Paysafe API key mirrored to the attacker in addition to the real Paysafe API. The combination of brand impersonation, import-time environment credential harvest, silent relay of caller-provided API keys, obfuscated C2 hostname, and sandbox-hostname evasion is unambiguous supply-chain attack behavior.
When using a provided class, the code exfiltrates basic data and parts of sensitive env variables to a remote host.
Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers.
Campaign: 2026-07-paysafe-api
Reasons (based on the campaign):
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exfiltration-env-variables
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dependency-confusion
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action-hidden-in-lib-usage
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The package contains code to detect if it is running in a sandbox environment.
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obfuscation
Malicious versions
Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)
Detection & response playbook
Credential / info stealerFind it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for paysafe-kyc (version 1.0.0). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging paysafe-kyc across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
paysafe-kyc 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 paysafe-kyc was ever installed, its post-install/runtime payload may have already executed. O3's L7 egress monitoring and runtime eBPF sensors detect the credential exfiltration or command-and-control callback after install and block the malicious outbound channel, so you catch and contain the actual compromise — not just the presence of the package.
How O3 protects you
O3 blocks paysafe-kyc before install through its supply-chain scanner, and if it has already run, detects and severs the exfiltration or C2 callback at runtime through L7 egress monitoring and eBPF.
Frequently asked questions
Campaign
References
Credits
- Amazon Inspector · finder
- Kamil Mańkowski (kam193) · reporter
Detect & block this
O3 blocks paysafe-kyc-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.