MAL-2026-17325

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Import Source
https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/pypi/cleanup-string/MAL-2026-17325.json
JSON Data
https://api.test.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-17325
Published
2026-09-30T04:37:46Z
Modified
2026-09-30T05:00:11Z
Summary
Malicious code in cleanup-string (PyPI)
Details

-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-

Source: amazon-inspector (844c5afa9f00c02149f4f6314447c5738e04ed419014809c1df83f31aa012525)

The package advertises itself as a pure-Python string helper (strip, slugify, case conversion, whitespace collapse) and its README states the implementation is standard-library only. However, cleanup_string/__init__.py performs from._impl import cleanup, which loads a 1.3 MB Windows-only native extension cleanup_string/_impl.cp313-win_amd64.vmp.pyd (sha256 980ae204f04f9a7e68666670eb5b236bc7347d0111697df1015de665fd1a1712). The filename embeds the VMProtect convention .vmp and the binary matches that packer's signature: the only readable strings are Win32 API imports (LoadLibraryA, GetModuleHandleA, HeapAlloc, DisableThreadLibraryCalls, ExitProcess, KERNEL32.dll, VCRUNTIME140.dll) and the remaining ~1.3 MB is high-entropy virtualized code. VMProtect exists to defeat static and dynamic analysis; the trivial advertised functionality has no legitimate need for a virtualized native module. Any Windows Python 3.13 environment that imports cleanup_string executes this opaque, anti-analysis-protected code with the privileges of the importing process.

Database specific 
{
    "malicious-packages-origins": [
        {
            "id": "IN-MAL-2026-020805",
            "import_time": "2026-09-30T04:46:52.43035141Z",
            "modified_time": "2026-09-30T04:37:46Z",
            "sha256": "844c5afa9f00c02149f4f6314447c5738e04ed419014809c1df83f31aa012525",
            "source": "amazon-inspector",
            "versions": [
                "1.0.0"
            ]
        }
    ]
}
References
Credits

Affected packages

PyPI / cleanup-string

Package

Name
cleanup-string
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/cleanup-string

Affected ranges

Affected versions

1.*
1.0.0

Database specific

cwes 
[
    {
        "cweId": "CWE-506",
        "description": "The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.",
        "name": "Embedded Malicious Code"
    }
]
indicators 
{
    "evidence_files": [
        {
            "path": "cleanup_string/_impl.cp313-win_amd64.vmp.pyd",
            "sha256": "980ae204f04f9a7e68666670eb5b236bc7347d0111697df1015de665fd1a1712",
            "tlsh": "3855f100f4e5e625ef6ef8798f43045816869504aba77a01fe543fcb0ecbb3a06c565b"
        }
    ],
    "package_integrity": [
        {
            "filename": "cleanup_string-1.0.0-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl",
            "hashes": {
                "blake2b_256": "b728699edebad4cf7516b3b978ba753f05f25760785aee7744194595226b3394",
                "md5": "f1b3e7e4a11860fe4cdde51b88328b41",
                "sha256": "a186a4c89a535e129c757fd9b4d8d280e0691d9d2baa290f5a4f9ec22a194696"
            }
        }
    ]
}
source 
"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/pypi/cleanup-string/MAL-2026-17325.json"