coldcard-helpers

GHSA-8vw6-pp4v-8j32

Malicious code in coldcard-helpers (PyPI)

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 1.4.2`

## 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.


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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.

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Credit: [OpenSSF](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages) ([source](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/907dfad635398a0512e3e32de5b22882c5cdb691/osv/malicious/pypi/coldcard-helpers/MAL-2026-11516.json))

**References:**
- https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/coldcard-helpers
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/907dfad635398a0512e3e32de5b22882c5cdb691/osv/malicious/pypi/coldcard-helpers/MAL-2026-11516.json
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8vw6-pp4v-8j32

Compromised versions (1)

= 1.4.2

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