AgentBaiting: Fake AI Skills and MCP Servers Delivered Malware
TL;DRIsland security research uncovered about 7,600 malicious GitHub repositories, with more than 800 of them posing as AI Skills or MCP servers in a wave that peaked in April 2026. Once executed, SmartLoader establishes persistence and installs StealC, an information stealer targeting credentials, active sessions, and other sensitive data.The most significant shift is a technique we call AgentBaiting. An AI agent searching for a new capability such as a Skill or an MCP server can discover a campaign repository on its own, treat the attacker's README as legitimate documentation, and hand the installation instructions to the user.
- ▪TL;DRIsland security research uncovered about 7,600 malicious GitHub repositories, with more than 800 of them posing as AI Skills or MCP servers in a wave that peaked in April 2026.
- ▪Once executed, SmartLoader establishes persistence and installs StealC, an information stealer targeting credentials, active sessions, and other sensitive data.The most significant shift is a technique we call AgentBaiting.
- ▪An AI agent searching for a new capability such as a Skill or an MCP server can discover a campaign repository on its own, treat the attacker's README as legitimate documentation, and hand the installation instructions to the user.
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TL;DRIsland security research uncovered about 7,600 malicious GitHub repositories, with more than 800 of them posing as AI Skills or MCP servers in a wave that peaked in April 2026. Those AI capability repositories appeared more than 600 times across public AI registries and catalogs, while the wider FakeGit operation recorded more than 14 million measured downloads.FakeGit uses copied projects, lookalike developer profiles, convincing READMEs, and malicious ZIP files to deliver SmartLoader malware. Once executed, SmartLoader establishes persistence and installs StealC, an information stealer targeting credentials, active sessions, and other sensitive data.The most significant shift is a technique we call AgentBaiting.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Island.io.
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