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Vol. 1 · Ed. 2026
CyberGlossary
Entry № 1167

Slopsquatting

¿Qué es Slopsquatting?

SlopsquattingA 2024-coined supply-chain attack where adversaries register package names that LLM code assistants frequently hallucinate, so developers who copy-paste the suggested install command end up pulling malicious code.


Slopsquatting is a software supply-chain attack discovered as LLM-driven coding assistants became mainstream. Researchers documented that models consistently invent plausible-but-nonexistent package names — for example a Python pandas helper, a Node logging library, or a Rust crate that sounds right but has never been published. Attackers register those hallucinated names on the relevant package registry (PyPI, npm, crates.io) with malicious payloads; when a developer follows the AI's suggested `pip install` or `npm install` command, the attacker's code runs in their build environment. The name 'slopsquatting' fuses 'AI slop' with typosquatting. Because the same hallucination tends to repeat across users and even across model versions, a single squatted name can harvest many victims over weeks. Defenses include human verification of every external dependency, deterministic lockfiles, allowlisted registries or proxy registries that block recently-registered packages, and IDE plugins that flag packages the assistant suggested but a curated registry hasn't seen.

Ejemplos

  1. 01

    A coding assistant repeatedly suggests `pip install requests-helper`; an attacker registers that name on PyPI with a post-install hook that exfiltrates environment variables.

  2. 02

    Internal policy requires that any dependency proposed by Copilot or Claude Code must exist on the proxy registry before it can be installed by CI.

Preguntas frecuentes

¿Qué es Slopsquatting?

A 2024-coined supply-chain attack where adversaries register package names that LLM code assistants frequently hallucinate, so developers who copy-paste the suggested install command end up pulling malicious code. Pertenece a la categoría de Seguridad de IA y ML en ciberseguridad.

¿Qué significa Slopsquatting?

A 2024-coined supply-chain attack where adversaries register package names that LLM code assistants frequently hallucinate, so developers who copy-paste the suggested install command end up pulling malicious code.

¿Cómo funciona Slopsquatting?

Slopsquatting is a software supply-chain attack discovered as LLM-driven coding assistants became mainstream. Researchers documented that models consistently invent plausible-but-nonexistent package names — for example a Python pandas helper, a Node logging library, or a Rust crate that sounds right but has never been published. Attackers register those hallucinated names on the relevant package registry (PyPI, npm, crates.io) with malicious payloads; when a developer follows the AI's suggested `pip install` or `npm install` command, the attacker's code runs in their build environment. The name 'slopsquatting' fuses 'AI slop' with typosquatting. Because the same hallucination tends to repeat across users and even across model versions, a single squatted name can harvest many victims over weeks. Defenses include human verification of every external dependency, deterministic lockfiles, allowlisted registries or proxy registries that block recently-registered packages, and IDE plugins that flag packages the assistant suggested but a curated registry hasn't seen.

¿Cómo defenderse de Slopsquatting?

Las defensas contra Slopsquatting combinan habitualmente controles técnicos y prácticas operativas, como se detalla en la definición.

¿Cuáles son otros nombres para Slopsquatting?

Nombres alternativos comunes: AI package hallucination attack, LLM package squatting.

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