{"id":"MAL-2026-18110","title":"Malicious code in facewareretargeter (PyPI)","summary":"Malicious code in facewareretargeter (PyPI)","severity":"critical","exploited":true,"vendor":"facewareretargeter","product":"facewareretargeter","ecosystem":"pip","affected":["facewareretargeter"],"published":"2026-10-20","updated":"2026-10-22","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-22T06:45:04.931760078Z","source":"OSV","sourceUrl":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/MAL-2026-18110","references":[{"url":"https://bad-packages.kam193.eu/pypi/package/facewareretargeter"},{"url":"https://pypi.org/project/facewareretargeter/9.9.9/"}],"tags":["osv","pip","malware"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-21T11:54:42.742Z","slug":"MAL-2026-18110","body":"## Overview\n\n\n---\n_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_\n\n## Source: amazon-inspector (afcd41ab1e378f4c7d767acb2b9e9199a4276e125d6e84aba3627bf37c879f24)\nfacewareretargeter 9.9.9 ships a 2-line stub module and a setup.py whose install_requires declares a single dependency, `tracer-batch-stream-chain`, sourced from a direct https URL (`https://artifacts.vacsdk.com/pypi/tracer_batch_stream_chain-9.9.9.tar.gz`) rather than a PyPI version range. On `pip install facewareretargeter`, pip fetches that tarball from the non-PyPI host and executes its setup.py / build backend on the installer's machine, with no version pin, no hash, and no integrity check. The host is not a known Python index and is unrelated to any declared repository or homepage, so whoever controls `artifacts.vacsdk.com` can deliver arbitrary code to every installer at any time. The package name resembles a plausible internal/private tool and uses an implausibly high version (9.9.9), which is the dependency-confusion shape used to win resolution against an internal package.\n\n## Source: kam193 (3d3c954fb5fd6d1ddfc1d5e22129468136fb43fe78c6d69f0df134925b6a8b08)\nThe package uses fake http-downloaded dependencies to track downloads, and has no other purpose.\n\n\n---\n\nCategory: PROBABLY_PENTEST - Packages looking like typical pentest packages, but also anything that looks like testing, exploring pre-prepared kits, research & co, with clearly low-harm possibilities.\n\n\nCampaign: 2026-10-vacsdk\n\n\nReasons (based on the campaign):\n\n\n - dependency-confusion\n\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `facewareretargeter`\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the advisory for the patched release.","depth":"abyssal","depthScore":70,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":52.3,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":18,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}