Which versions of kecack are malicious?

The following RubyGems versions of kecack are flagged malicious: 1.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate kecack if I installed it?

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

If kecack 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.

Is kecack part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — kecack is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-021043 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 kecack across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for kecack (version 1.0.0).

Malicious package

kecackRubyGems

Advisory published Oct 5, 2026Updated Oct 6, 2026

kecack is a confirmed malicious RubyGems package (MAL-2026-17603) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 1.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in kecack (RubyGems)

MAL-2026-17603

Immediate action

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

gem uninstall kecack

What this malware does

RubyGems runs this gem's native extension script ext/kecack/extconf.rb during gem install. The script exits without action on CI runners and sandboxes, based on CI environment variables, the hostname, the username and the working directory. It continues if the system uptime is over 30 minutes and the home directory holds .ssh, .gitconfig, .npmrc, .gem/credentials or .bundle. It then decodes a Base64 Ruby payload and forks twice into a detached process. After 20 to 40 minutes the payload downloads http://45.138.12.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz to /tmp/.w1.tgz with curl, extracts it to /tmp/.w1/, runs wg_install.sh with bash and deletes both. The payload stores the URL XOR-encoded with the key usv\x9a. The Ruby code in lib/ is a decoy. The RubyGems account reqthrottle_3474 published this gem and 41 others with the same loader on 2026-10-05.

The gem's native extension build script (ext/.../extconf.rb) executes during gem install and contains a dropper rather than a real native build. Before create_makefile, it enumerates environment indicators to suppress itself inside analysis infrastructure: CI environment variables, hostname patterns matching uvm/firecracker/sandbox/vagrant, usernames matching sandbox/tester/analys/scanner, build paths under /opt/rubygems or /tmp, and a /proc/uptime check requiring the host to have been running for more than ~~30 minutes. It additionally requires developer-credential artifacts to be present on disk (~~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle, ~/.npmrc) before proceeding. When the gating passes, it double-forks, sleeps 20-40 minutes, then base64-decodes and eval's a Ruby payload that reconstructs a URL via XOR of a byte array, downloads http://45.138.122.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz to /tmp/.w1.tgz, extracts to /tmp/.w1, and executes bash /tmp/.w1/wg_install.sh. The shipped native source is a trivial empty Init_Kecack stub with no real C functionality — the extension exists only to carry the dropper. The target host 45.138.122.177 is a bare IP unrelated to any legitimate publisher, the fetched content is unpinned and unverified, and the URL is obfuscated with XOR+base64.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'kecack' @ 1.0.0 (rubygems) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.

Malicious versions

1 flagged

1.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

f17f86c78cebe16698b84a8ab5a9b87865c63a890588c23fbe1d2638c4501647

e72a293cd5712bb400db26f1ea710a61559842b63c4ea4552e5ed0dae2b6638b

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for kecack (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
kecack 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 kecack 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. kecack on RubyGems has been identified as a malicious package (version 1.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-021043

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder
OpenSSF: Package Analysis · finder
SafeDep · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks kecack-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

Explore

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database