Is this PyPI package safe to install?
Search any PyPI package before you pip install it. Dependency Guardian checks for setup.py exec hooks, credential theft, obfuscation, network exfiltration, and other supply chain attack behavior.
Validated on 17,874 packages. PyPI 93.88% / npm 95.20% catch rate on disclosed malware.
Popular PyPI packages
Why PyPI supply chain scanning matters
PyPI is the second largest open source package registry by attack volume. Disclosed incidents over the last two years include credential stealing typosquats of requests, urllib3, boto3, and dozens of data science package names; setup.py hooks that exfiltrate environment variables on install; and obfuscated payloads hidden in wheel post install hooks.
A traditional pip audit or Safety check answers a different question: does this package have a published CVE? Supply chain attacks don't have CVEs while they're live. The attacker publishes a new version, the registry treats it as a normal release, and advisory databases only catch up after disclosure (sometimes weeks later, often after data has already been exfiltrated).
What this scanner checks
- setup.py / pyproject install hooks: code that runs the moment you pip install, before you ever import the module
- Credential access: reads of
~/.aws/credentials,~/.pypirc, environment secrets, SSH keys - Network exfiltration: HTTP / DNS / WebSocket callouts to unknown hosts during install or import
- Obfuscation: base64 encoded payloads, exec() with dynamic strings, marshal loaded bytecode
- Typosquats: Levenshtein distance lookalikes of the top 200 PyPI packages
- Sandbox behavior: eligible packages run in an isolated sandbox to observe runtime behavior
For the full methodology and per detector breakdown, see our complete behavioral scanning guide and the 17,874 package validation report.