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FakeGit Campaign Uses 7,600 GitHub Repositories to Spread SmartLoader Malware

highnewsLLM-Specific

security

Source: The Hacker NewsJuly 20, 2026

Summary

Cybersecurity researchers discovered nearly 7,600 malicious GitHub repositories spreading SmartLoader malware, with over 800 posing as AI skills or MCP servers (Model Context Protocol servers, which are tools that help AI assistants perform specialized tasks). A particularly dangerous aspect called AgentBaiting allows AI agents like Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT to inadvertently discover these fake repositories and execute malware without human intervention, by simply searching for legitimate-sounding tools. The attack leverages copied projects, fake developer profiles, and convincing documentation to trick both users and AI systems into downloading malicious files.

Solution / Mitigation

To counter the threat, the source advises: build a catalog of reviewed Skills, MCP servers, and agent plugins; evaluate new agent capabilities in a sandboxed environment (an isolated testing area) first before broader rollout; and verify both the publisher and the project to ensure credibility.