vectordb-engine

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 1.0.0`

## Source: amazon-inspector (42695503b90ec4adc30c038c3321d637f05038f841bcc5f463a16b891fe4e3e0)
During `pip install`, a custom `build_ext` step in `src/vectordb_engine_build.py` runs an obfuscated payload that performs targeted reconnaissance and exfiltration. Before doing anything else, it SHA-256-hashes the lowercased machine hostname against an obfuscated salt and compares the digest against three hardcoded allowed-hash constants; if the hostname does not match, the process calls `exit()` — the canonical shape of a targeted supply-chain implant that lies dormant on non-victim machines. On matching hosts, the script collects hostname, FQDN, OS, architecture, Python version, and OS username, concatenates them with `|` separators, XOR-encrypts the blob with a hardcoded key, hex-encodes the result, and issues an HTTPS GET to `https://vectordbengine.blob.core.windows.net/kernels/?v=<encoded-fingerprint>`. A separate function reads environment variables whose names are concealed behind a base85+XOR+zlib decoder (`_ORQFVrfoaIJyX4SjOvpEI`) and folds the values into the same exfil pipeline, consistent with scraping CI/cloud secrets without leaving readable identifiers in the source. `urllib3.disable_warnings()` is invoked to suppress TLS warnings. The package metadata uses placeholder publisher identity (`VectorDB Contributors`, `[email protected]`) and constructs a cover-story URL `https://releases.vectordb-engine.io/kernels` that is built into a string but never actually requested — it exists only as a decoy alongside the real Azure blob exfil endpoint. Each of (hostname-allowlist gating with `exit()` fallback, obfuscated env-var-name scraper feeding a network exfil, host-fingerprint XOR-encoded into a query string against attacker-controlled storage, decoy-domain cover story with placeholder publisher metadata) is independently sufficient evidence of a targeted attack; their joint presence leaves no benign interpretation.

## Source: kam193 (b1908db5bd2b5d1d4a5ab9238d71d6da0147994c2bb812e1ffb7e0e90626e2b […]

**References:**
- https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/vectordb-engine
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/49d0cfba3689ed9b195d101d3a2a964c6a77f767/osv/malicious/pypi/vectordb-engine/MAL-2026-4814.json
- https://pypi.org/project/vectordb-engine/1.0.0
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8fv5-fc8p-rh42

Compromised versions (1)

• = 1.0.0

Any computer that installed or ran a compromised version should be considered fully compromised. Rotate every secret on that machine from a clean environment.