Security researchers and developers are raising alarms over “slopsquatting,” a new form of supply chain attack that leverages AI-generated misinformation commonly known as hallucinations. As developers increasingly rely on coding tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek, attackers are exploiting AI’s tendency to invent software packages, tricking users into downloading malicious content.
What is Slopsquatting?
The term slopsquatting was originally coined by Seth Larson, a developer with the Python Software Foundation, and later popularized by tech security researcher Andrew Nesbitt. It refers to cases where attackers register software packages that don’t actually exist, but are mistakenly suggested by AI tools; once live, these fake packages can contain harmful code.