Which versions of piedefender are malicious?

The following PyPI versions of piedefender are flagged malicious: 0.0.1. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate piedefender if I installed it?

piedefender 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 piedefender — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If piedefender 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.

Is piedefender part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — piedefender is associated with the RLMA-2025-02517, 2025-02-pydefender, RLUA-2026-00591 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 piedefender across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for piedefender (version 0.0.1). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging piedefender across your stack and pipelines.

Malicious package

piedefenderPyPI

Malicious code in piedefender (PyPI) Remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

MAL-2025-3454

Immediate action

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

pip uninstall piedefender

What this malware does

setup.py is prepared to download and run an obfuscated batch script. While the script is not detected by any AV currently, in the sandbox analysis it reveals behaviour like adding exclusions to Windows Defender

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

Campaign: 2025-02-pydefender

Reasons (based on the campaign):

Downloads and executes a remote malicious script.
malware
The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

0.0.1

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

b13c9da5083fadd88be010b9dd1c0f2e3cb5cec7f1ff9a33d8f5f824c3182e1e

2c1529cc05836ad53ce1822ee0e8da4790aa1ce9d219d1b00e70ced2cb8798fe

f8a30e991bd97073c50a9cdabb10842f2c5ae074c46fcd0aeff5d7917d4b56fa

2903ec35712e2f200e617905786798d33c5fde00c0334c5694257c81e6b9f066

9eac6fdd9b544e93e1b48694e0ffad9d309d5a7d03f1c87eb4b806af6e9e2141

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Scan your lockfiles (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, etc.) and build artifacts for piedefender (version 0.0.1). O3 Security's supply-chain scanner checks every dependency against known-malicious package intelligence at install time and in CI, flagging piedefender across your stack and pipelines.
If you installed it — respond
piedefender 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 piedefender 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 piedefender 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

No. piedefender on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (version 0.0.1 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

RLMA-2025-025172025-02-pydefenderRLUA-2026-00591

References

Credits

Kamil Mańkowski (kam193)
ReversingLabs · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks piedefender-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