Malicious PyPI Package Targets Developer Credentials

JFrog uncovers multi-stage malware harvesting cloud secrets Prajeet Nair (@prajeetspeaks) • June 17, 2025

Multi-stage malware embedded in a Python package is stealing sensitive cloud infrastructure data, JFrog researchers said Monday.

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The JFrog Security Research team disclosed its discovery of a malicious package named chimera-sandbox-extensions on the Python Package Index or PyPI. The package steals credentials, configuration files, API tokens and other data from corporate cloud environments.

Uploaded by a user called chimerai, the malware targets developers using the Chimera sandbox platform.

The attack sequence begins with the package calling a function named check_update() after installation. This function connects to domains generated by a domain generation algorithm, of which only one, twdtsgc8iuryd0iu.chimerasandbox.workers.dev/auth, is active. After connecting, the malware downloads and executes a first-stage payload that retrieves an authentication token, which is then used ...