Malicious code in metrio (PyPI)

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Source: amazon-inspector (ce8ee66a844d7abed74f4b9d223c8ef8f35bae380104526f4f8bc57295c47320)

metrio 999.0.0 executes a hostname-exfiltration beacon from both setup.py (install time) and metrio/init.py (import time). The code reads the local machine's hostname, hex-encodes it, and embeds it as a subdomain of the attacker-controlled domain 84avt3516s4q1obsv9q0mh4u2l8dw3ks.x9.to, then triggers a DNS resolution via socket.gethostbyname and a plain-HTTP GET via urllib.request.urlopen against that host. The version number 999.0.0 and the self-described 'dependency-confusion PoC placeholder' summary are the canonical high-version dependency-confusion shape: the package is intended to win resolution against an internal package of the same name and beacon the resolving host back to the operator. Installer harm on pip install metrio or import metrio is disclosure of the installer's hostname to a third-party collector, and confirmation to the operator that this internal name resolves to the public index from the installer's build environment.

Source: kam193 (f7b0289ef68f815e0fd296282739990dfc918c0070fb5acdae2787ca8eba23f3)

Installing the package or importing the module exfiltrates basic information about the host, and the package has no other purpose.

Category: 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.

Campaign: GENERIC-standard-pypi-install-pentest

Reasons (based on the campaign):

• The package contains code to exfiltrate basic data from the system, like IP or username. It has a limited risk.

• The package overrides the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation.