Malicious code in aichannel (PyPI)

A coordinated malicious package campaign was discovered on PyPI involving multiple packages designed to work together as dependencies. The primary package aichannel provides fake functionality while silently executing malicious code from its dependencies cognikit and aiassistcore, which contain the actual C2 configuration and malicious payloads.\n\nThe malicious functionality includes cryptocurrency wallet address replacement (redirecting to attacker-controlled addresses), browser data exfiltration, keylogging, clipboard monitoring, persistence mechanisms, and remote access capabilities. The packages appear designed to be used as dependencies in malicious interview assessment platforms or cryptocurrency-related projects.\n\nThe indicators of compromise and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) are consistent with North Korea's "Contagious Interview" campaign. The attack chain leverages dependency relationships to distribute and execute malicious code across multiple packages, increasing the likelihood of infection through transitive dependencies.\n\nThe incident was identified and credited to the OpenSSF's malicious-packages repository, which tracks confirmed malicious packages across package ecosystems.