Arbitrary package attacks for pip without TUF

In an arbitrary package attack, we show pip packages with dubious origins. These are malicious packages which an attacker has overwritten over benign packages in order to deceive users into installing them.

First, we set up the virtual environment (for cleanroom testing) and install pip-without-TUF:

$ cd  /tmp
$ curl -O https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/v/virtualenv/virtualenv-1.10.1.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz virtualenv-1.10.1.tar.gz
$ python virtualenv-1.10.1/virtualenv.py --no-site-packages arbitrary-package-without-tuf
$ source arbitrary-package-without-tuf/bin/activate

First, suppose the attackers on PyPI tamper with the FooBar 0.1 package, and update the FooBar simple index with the correct hash of the tampered package:

$ pip install FooBar --index-url http://mirror1.poly.edu/test-pip/arbitrary-package/repository.current/targets/simple/
Downloading/unpacking FooBar
  Downloading FooBar-0.1.tar.gz
  Running setup.py egg_info for package FooBar
    
Installing collected packages: FooBar
  Running setup.py install for FooBar
    TAMPERED FooBar 0.1
    
Successfully installed FooBar
Cleaning up...

Unfortunately, this user has now been compromised with a malicious FooBar package. This situation could have been avoided with the arbitrary package attack protection offered by PyPI-with-TUF.