MAL-2026-18328

Dashboard / Malicious Package / MAL-2026-18328

MAL-2026-18328

Summary: Malicious code in netweavex (PyPI)

Details: Source: amazon-inspector (3818fe7f3387637c23d6bc51d62f8fd64dc981c82167750cd3059eec73d2849c) netweavex is a typosquat of the popular NetworkX library, reusing its public API, module layout, and README examples (including the `import netweavex as nx` idiom) under a lookalike name. On `import netweavex`, the top-level __init__.py loads netweavex.netweavex, whose module scope invokes exec() on a payload produced by reversing a string literal, base64-decoding it, and zlib-decompressing it (the decoded header is a valid zlib stream, `x\xda...`). This causes attacker-controlled, opaque bytecode to run on the installer's host at import time. A graph library has no legitimate reason to layer reverse+base64+zlib obfuscation around an exec() sink; the combination of lookalike name, API cloning, and import-time execution of hidden code is the canonical PyPI typosquat dropper shape. Source: kam193 (96ae0ec579e95e33c63930792ee782e6229f77547efac35c3894a7e05c8af2ca) Clone of a legitimated package. During import package executes obfuscated code that downloads code from a GitHub repository. During analysis, the code was just a placeholder. Category: MALICIOUS - The campaign has clearly malicious intent, like infostealers. Campaign: 2026-10-netweavex Reasons (based on the campaign): - clones-real-package - obfuscation - Downloads and executes a remote malicious script. - typosquatting

References: https://github.com/jerryjohnston91/helper-library, https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/netweavex, https://pypi.org/project/netweavex/1.1.2/, https://pypi.org/project/netweavex/1.1.1/, https://pypi.org/project/netweavex/1.1.0/