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resolvedcritical

Malicious code in advirtual (PyPI)

The advirtual package on PyPI contained malicious code that executed spyware and information-stealing malware. It was part of a campaign by EsqueleSquad group that published nearly 6000 malicious packages across PyPI and NPM.

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Disclosed
Last updated
Blast radius
Potentially thousands of installations; part of a campaign distributing ~6000 malicious packages across PyPI and NPM.
Ecosystems
PyPI
Attack vectors
Compromised package
Threat actor
Esquelesquad
Affected entities
  • advirtualMalicious package published to PyPI

The advirtual package published to PyPI contained malicious code designed to execute spyware and information-stealing malware on affected systems. This package was part of a large-scale campaign attributed to the EsqueleSquad group.

The EsqueleSquad group published approximately 6000 malicious packages across both PyPI and NPM ecosystems as part of this coordinated campaign. The malicious packages were identified and documented by the OpenSSF's malicious-packages repository.

The incident has been cataloged under the identifier MAL-2023-2507 in the OpenSSF malicious packages database, indicating the malware was discovered and documented in 2023.

Indicators of compromise

Packages
  • advirtual

Remediation

  • Remove advirtual package from all environments immediately
  • Audit systems that installed advirtual for signs of compromise, including unauthorized access, data exfiltration, or persistence mechanisms
  • Review PyPI and NPM package dependencies for other packages from the EsqueleSquad campaign
  • Implement package verification and scanning in dependency management workflows
  • Monitor for indicators of compromise related to spyware and information-stealing malware

Sources

  1. GitHub Advisory GHSA-4v83-pf7q-2v23 · GitHub Advisory Database

Cite this entry

"Malicious code in advirtual (PyPI)." supplychainattack.org, Supply Chain Attack Incident Catalog. Disclosed July 21, 2026; last updated July 21, 2026. https://supplychainattack.org/incident/malicious-code-in-advirtual-pypi-7yqaxl

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