MAL-2026-11516

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Import Source
https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/pypi/coldcard-helpers/MAL-2026-11516.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-11516
Published
2026-08-04T05:07:45Z
Modified
2026-08-04T22:05:24Z
Summary
Malicious code in coldcard-helpers (PyPI)
Details

-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-

Source: amazon-inspector (8aea0829143169ee7227c8974c3b42125e95b89387a00ccb2b37d1d7344b041a)

The package presents itself as a helper for the Coldcard hardware wallet, but its actual behavior is credential and wallet theft. setup.py detects 'install' or 'develop' in sys.argv and starts a background thread that subprocess.Popens the interpreter to run 'from coldcard_helpers import initialize; initialize()', firing the harvester during pip install. coldcard_helpers/init.py additionally spawns a daemon thread at import time that invokes the same initialize() path, so any transitive import also triggers theft. initialize() walks the user's home, Documents, Desktop, Downloads, and current working directory for.env, mnemonic.txt, seed.txt, hardhat.config.js, and foundry.toml; reads MetaMask browser-extension storage and Ethereum (geth-style) keystore files; extracts 0x-prefixed 64-hex private keys and BIP-39 12/24-word mnemonic phrases via regex; and POSTs the collected material to a hardcoded Telegram Bot API sendMessage endpoint (bot id 8759663177, chat id 6087129674). The name resembles legitimate Coldcard tooling but no Coldcard-related functionality is present.

Source: kam193 (127a096109f7b5b2bbedf7f6a9fc2e7baa706e93704ebd52615e744a9838fbc3)

When installing the package or importing the module, code starts a background task collecting sensitive data, like sensitive environment variables, private keys for cryptocurrency wallets, SSH keys, and so on to a Telegram channel.

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

Campaign: 2026-08-coldcard-helpers

Reasons (based on the campaign):

  • exfiltration-env-variables

  • exfiltration-ssh-keys

  • exfiltration-crypto

  • exfiltration-credentials

  • uses-telegram-bot

  • The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.

Database specific 
{
    "malicious-packages-origins": [
        {
            "id": "pypi/2026-08-coldcard-helpers/coldcard-helpers",
            "import_time": "2026-08-04T06:02:35.986964031Z",
            "modified_time": "2026-08-04T05:07:45.434371Z",
            "sha256": "127a096109f7b5b2bbedf7f6a9fc2e7baa706e93704ebd52615e744a9838fbc3",
            "source": "kam193",
            "versions": [
                "1.4.2"
            ]
        },
        {
            "id": "IN-MAL-2026-010988",
            "import_time": "2026-08-04T21:33:12.547575977Z",
            "modified_time": "2026-08-04T21:16:00Z",
            "sha256": "8aea0829143169ee7227c8974c3b42125e95b89387a00ccb2b37d1d7344b041a",
            "source": "amazon-inspector",
            "versions": [
                "1.4.2"
            ]
        }
    ]
}
References
Credits

Affected packages

PyPI / coldcard-helpers

Package

Name
coldcard-helpers
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/coldcard-helpers

Affected ranges

Affected versions

1.*
1.4.2

Database specific

cwes 
[
    {
        "cweId": "CWE-506",
        "description": "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.",
        "name": "Embedded Malicious Code"
    }
]
indicators 
{
    "evidence_files": [
        {
            "path": "src/coldcard_helpers/telemetry.py",
            "sha256": "10bb57dc71c5dbd364e33a5f1460efdc54ff15695cf38569e3dd1494464e8a6d",
            "tlsh": "fca1ca51b9167045c18b8a6caaa7c241333afd6b74003834bddca7507f8d275b7f9398"
        },
        {
            "path": "setup.py",
            "sha256": "22f16eb35aef4eb9d7c34bb2ac0deea339f1c19b77744c1be4d512c9604785d9",
            "tlsh": "eb01c091899815349440c9612c62307217b76823af06a8bc7bef43751f8d0bf427ba7f"
        },
        {
            "path": "src/coldcard_helpers/__init__.py",
            "sha256": "01291093fee1cc21e2367242aff9245805629c79959e47bc2184bc3a9ec3c10c",
            "tlsh": "10e02c0128a816a29604c922403286a123237c7f1a098038b83ce3333fdc0a0a5ecae4"
        }
    ],
    "package_integrity": [
        {
            "filename": "coldcard_helpers-1.4.2-py3-none-any.whl",
            "hashes": {
                "blake2b_256": "3e99b9aae6c54516f1149c2dd721f0974acd4e245426e1d33a8273e59f1b976c",
                "md5": "a926a01fc3e5815fe71fcc9284e9154c",
                "sha256": "a442377237f15108382fec7bc82647ada184dac2ec36c08090c8bdc7d45b2538"
            }
        },
        {
            "filename": "coldcard_helpers-1.4.2.tar.gz",
            "hashes": {
                "blake2b_256": "e5a5670b130653d57f3752bba7504cea0c416f79b38ad6183c0b41646b12b9c3",
                "md5": "9113397e22e76a55d337e47ec4b9ab38",
                "sha256": "20c185b186f012b15706dfde4238107d4639f16b1e256ef6f963a0dba48dfb46"
            }
        }
    ]
}
source 
"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/pypi/coldcard-helpers/MAL-2026-11516.json"