doctreelstm (PyPI): malicious package exfiltrates host info on install/import (no CVE)
Severity: critical · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2026-10-31
GitHub published advisory GHSA-5fxv-5qc2-53g8 on 2026-10-31 flagging the PyPI package doctreelstm as malicious. Versions 1.0.0 and 10.0.0 override the install command in setup.py to execute malicious code during installation, and installing the package or importing the module exfiltrates basic host information such as IP address and username; the package has no other purpose. It is categorized as PROBABLYPENTEST under the GENERIC-standard-pypi-install-pentest campaign, credited to OpenSSF/kam193. No patched versions exist — the package is malware and should not be used under any version. Any developer or CI environment that installed doctreelstm should treat the host as potentially exposed and rotate credentials used on it.
What to do
- Search environments and dependency lockfiles for doctreelstm and remove it; do not install any version
- If installed, treat the host as compromised: review exfiltrated data exposure (IP, username), rotate credentials and tokens used on that machine
- Check pip logs/CI history for installs of doctreelstm versions 1.0.0 or 10.0.0
- Block the package name in internal artifact registries and dependency scanning
Sources
All live incidents on Threat Watch
