Top AI tools including Claude, Codex, and Hermes installed suspicious code inside corporate networks

Date:
Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:05:00 +0000

Description:
There is a new class of "squatting" risks emerging right in front of us and
it involves llms.txt and llms-full.txt documentation.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Researchers found unclaimed llms.txt references on 120 domains, exploitable by cybercriminals AI agents could install malware if they execute hallucinated or outdated documentation commands Fixes: clean documentation and restrict AI agents from treating docs as executable instructions Cybercriminals are able to now abuse hallucinated, outdated, and outright incorrect website documentation to deliver malware to unsuspecting victims through AI agents , new research has claimed.

An increasing number of websites now contain two documents: llms.txt, and llms-full.txt. These are conventions that allow AI agents to properly read
the contents of the websites. If an AI agent is looking to install software
or add code to a project, they can search through these documents across the web until they find a fitting solution. Researchers have analyzed 6,214 live domains belonging to defense contractors, Fortune 500 organizations, as well as big tech. On these domains they found 8,265 of these .txt files and among them 120 (all on a different site) pointing to one or more code packages and domain names that werent registered at all. Latest Videos From TechRadar
Watch full video here: Claiming packages and domains There can be a myriad of reasons why theyre not registered. It can be due to human error, renamed or abandoned packages, copy/paste errors, or hallucinated documentation.

Now, for the purpose of the experiment, the researchers registered some of these unclaimed names and hosted packages that would phone home when installed. It took less than an hour for a Fortune 500 company to start pinging, and the numbers soon grew to a few dozen more. You may like Top AI tools such as OpenClaw and Github Copilot can be hijacked to create new massive botnets Experts warn hackers are using AI chatbots to write malware using natural language Experts warn ChatGPT's Workspace Agent Builder can be hijacked to create malicious AI workers

This means that if the researchers can do it, so can cybercriminals. In theory, a cybercriminal could find these unclaimed packages and register malware . If an AI agent has permission to execute shell/package-manager commands and stumbles upon this documentation, it can end up infecting the device.

Claude, OpenAIs Codex, and Nous Researchs Hermes were all guilty, the researchers said. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners
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To fix the vulnerability, two things need to happen. First, companies need to clean up their documentation and make sure its not pointing towards non-existent or malicious content. Second, AI agents need to stop treating documentation as executable instructions. Since the latter most likely isnt happening any time soon, the immediate answer would probably lie in the former. In the meantime, organizations using AI for coding should consider
the risks when granting AI agents permission to execute commands.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/top-ai-tools-including-claude-codex-and -hermes-installed-suspicious-code-inside-corporate-networks


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