An unrevoked master key exposed in a public repository allowed attackers to infiltrate the LiteLLM release pipeline, resulting in the malicious v1.107.0 release deployed to PyPI and container registries.
How the breach started
The problem began on May 27, 2026, when a key configuration was accidentally published to the LiteLLM open source repository. Although the developers quickly caught the error and patched it, they forgot to revoke the key.
On October 10, 2026, an unknown attacker used the inactive but non-cancelled key to log into the platform. From there, he was able to extract a digital access key associated with an administrator account.
Between October 10 and 12, the attacker created temporary, short-lived branches of code to run internal processes and gather additional keys and digital assets.
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The publication of the infected version
On October 21, 2026, the perpetrator changed the release process to lead to a decoy copy of the repository, releasing version 1.107.0 of LiteLLM.
The malicious update was uploaded to three well-known software distribution platforms between 11:39 AM and 11:46 AM UTC on the same day. The program was designed to run automatically when the Python programming language was started and included a credential-stealing tool and a backdoor for Unix systems.
The reaction of researchers and platforms
The attack was detected by security researcher Lidor Machluf of Upwind at 12:06 PM UTC. Shortly thereafter, at 1:23 PM UTC, the first platform quarantined the problematic version, and by 2:20 PM UTC, the remaining services had removed or replaced the infected files.
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