Attacker hijacks AI coding assistant session, spreads Shai-Hulud to about 100 repos at SaaS provider

An attacker hijacked an active AI coding-assistant session at an unnamed software-as-a-service provider today and later spread the Shai-Hulud worm across about 100 internal code repositories, The Hacker News reports. Mandiant, cited by the outlet, says the breach underscores how poisoned package recommendations from AI tools can become supply-chain footholds. The incident matters as companies increasingly rely on coding assistants in production, raising the risk that a single accepted suggestion can seed organization-wide compromise.

According to The Hacker News, before the repo spread the assistant recommended attacker-tainted software, the suggestion was accepted, and Shai-Hulud then stole repository secrets and source code as it propagated internally. Mandiant has not named the impacted provider, and details on initial access and persistence are still being analyzed. Watch for Mandiant’s fuller report, indicators of compromise, and guidance from AI tool vendors on hardening assistant sessions. [Developing. This article will be updated.]