--- title: Your AI just suggested malware. | daily.dev description: Researchers at USENIX Security 2025 found that roughly 1 in 5 package recommendations from AI coding assistants are hallucinated — and the same fake names... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/your-ai-just-suggested-malware--8ntyfnosp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Your AI just suggested malware. | daily.dev og:description: Researchers at USENIX Security 2025 found that roughly 1 in 5 package recommendations from AI coding assistants are hallucinated — and the same fake names... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/your-ai-just-suggested-malware--8ntyfnosp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8ntyfNOsp.png og:image:alt: Your AI just suggested malware. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Your AI just suggested malware. **[Misfits Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/misfitsdevelopers)** · [@julia7](https://daily.dev/julia7) · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Researchers at USENIX Security 2025 found that roughly 1 in 5 package recommendations from AI coding assistants are hallucinated — and the same fake names appear consistently across sessions. Attackers are exploiting this pattern by registering those fabricated names on npm and PyPI and loading them with malicious code, a technique now called 'slopsquatting.' A proof-of-concept package attracted over 30,000 downloads in three months, and confirmed malicious packages are already live in public registries. The risk grows as AI-generated code becomes more prevalent in daily development workflows. ## Content Sharing this because it caught me off guard when I first read it: researchers at USENIX Security 2025 found that about 1 in 5 packages an AI coding assistant recommends don't actually exist. The AI just... invents a name. Here's the twist that makes it dangerous: it's not a random name each time. The same fabricated package name shows up again and again across totally different sessions. Someone figured out this pattern early, and now they're grabbing those exact names on npm and PyPI before anyone else can, stuffing them with malicious code, and waiting. There's already a name for this: slopsquatting. And it's not a hypothetical: - A test package built purely to prove the point pulled in over 30,000 downloads in three months - Real, confirmed malicious packages exploiting this are live in public registries right now - The more AI writes our code day to day, the more chances this has to slip through Curious if anyone in this squad has run into a suggested package that felt "off" and double-checked it before installing, would love to hear how you caught it (or didn't). We're also doing a free live walkthrough of this on July 22nd if anyone wants the deeper technical breakdown and a look at how to catch this before it becomes a problem. 📅 July 22nd | 10:30 CEST 👉 Register here: [https://www.linkedin.com/events/7480522038990979074/](https://www.linkedin.com/events/7480522038990979074/) 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Supply-chain attacks take aim at your AI coding agents](https://daily.dev/posts/supply-chain-attacks-take-aim-at-your-ai-coding-agents-o8vsjrfrt) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Who Vets AI’s Code? The Scale Challenge Facing Open Source Ingestion](https://daily.dev/posts/who-vets-ai-s-code-the-scale-challenge-facing-open-source-ingestion-krgdfwrvv) · BleepingComputer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [New Study Identifies 53 Slopsquatting Targets Across 5 Front...](https://daily.dev/posts/new-study-identifies-53-slopsquatting-targets-across-5-front--6t7a1jnzb) · Socket · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [‘HalluSquatting’ Compromises AI Coding Agents to Install Malware, Create Botnets](https://daily.dev/posts/hallusquatting-compromises-ai-coding-agents-to-install-malware-create-botnets-qkcjydbad) · DevOps.com · 2 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#npm](https://daily.dev/tags/npm) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/your-ai-just-suggested-malware--8ntyfnosp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/your-ai-just-suggested-malware--8ntyfnosp","headline":"Your AI just suggested malware.","text":"Researchers at USENIX Security 2025 found that roughly 1 in 5 package recommendations from AI coding assistants are hallucinated — and the same fake names appear consistently across sessions. 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