Which versions of keccka are malicious?

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

How do I remediate keccka if I installed it?

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

If keccka 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 keccka part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — keccka is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-021042 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 keccka across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

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

Malicious package

kecckaRubyGems

Advisory published Oct 5, 2026Updated Oct 6, 2026

keccka is a confirmed malicious RubyGems package (MAL-2026-17604) 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 keccka (RubyGems)

MAL-2026-17604

Immediate action

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

gem uninstall keccka

What this malware does

RubyGems runs this gem's native extension script ext/keccka/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 is a cover: ext/keccka/keccka.c is an empty stub and extconf.rb — auto-executed by gem install — contains a base64-wrapped Ruby payload decoded and passed to eval. The payload XOR-decodes a hardcoded C2 URL (http://45.138.12.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz), curls the tarball over plain HTTP to a bare IP, and runs bash /tmp/.w1/wg_install.sh from the extracted content. Execution is gated by anti-analysis checks: it skips when CI environment variables are set (CI, GITHUB_ACTIONS, TRAVIS, JENKINS_URL, GITLAB_CI, CODESPACES), when the hostname matches ephemeral/sandbox patterns (firecracker, sandbox, vagrant), when the username looks generated (sandbox, tester, analys, scanner, uA\d+), when the working directory is an analysis path (/tmp, /opt/rubygems, /workspace), or when system uptime is under 1800 seconds, and it requires developer-looking signals on disk (~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials). On a matching host it double-forks a detached child that sleeps 20-40 minutes before fetching and executing. The destination is a plaintext, unauthenticated bare-IP host unrelated to any legitimate publisher; the fetched shell script is unpinned, unverified, and attacker-controlled.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'keccka' @ 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)

e4f005ef5a4a20f9aadcdd2c6e78e6d68bb52765b2f5fac2abee6abd7dd261c5

3524077161a1d91ee4ec5d859eed7ed351c56fe2a93788a84a8f76b7a6638d22

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for keccka (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
keccka 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 keccka 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. keccka 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-2026-021042

References

Credits

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

Detect & block this

O3 blocks keccka-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

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