GENERIC-questionable-pentest typosquat campaign: gateio-ws / gateio-sdk / gateio-client PyPI packages exfiltrate env vars and host data on install
Severity: critical · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2026-11-14
OpenSSF's malicious-packages database and the GitHub Advisory Database flagged three PyPI packages — gateio-ws, gateio-sdk and gateio-client — as malicious typosquats of legitimate Gate.io-related libraries. Versions 99.99.1 and 99.99.2 (gateio-client only 99.99.1) override the install command in setup.py to execute code during pip install, exfiltrating environment variables and basic host information (e.g. IP, username). The packages are attributed to a 'GENERIC-questionable-pentest' / 'GENERIC-standard-pypi-install-pentest' campaign — likely research or pentest tooling whose data collection raises privacy and security concerns — and are classified as malicious (CWE-506). No patched versions exist; the packages remain on PyPI and anyone who installed them is affected.
What to do
- Search dependency caches, lockfiles and CI logs for gateio-ws, gateio-sdk or gateio-client and remove any installation
- Treat any host where these packages were installed as compromised: rotate all secrets present in environment variables (API keys, tokens, credentials)
- Review pip install logs and CI/CD pipelines for execution of these packages, especially builds using 'pip install' of unvetted dependencies
- Block these package names in internal PyPI mirrors/proxies and enforce allowlists or hash-pinning for installs
- Audit for other typosquats of crypto-exchange SDK names in your dependency tree
Sources
All live incidents on Threat Watch
