All that's required is to create a malicious software package under a hallucinated package name and then upload the bad package to a package registry or index like PyPI or npm for distribution. Thereafter, when an AI code assistant re-hallucinates the co-opted name, the process of installing dependencies and executing the code will run the malware.

Aboukhadijeh explained that _Iain "automated the creation of thousands of typo-squatted packages (many targeting crypto libraries) and even used ChatGPT to generate realistic-sounding variants of real package names at scale. He shared video tutorials walking others through the process, from publishing the packages to executing payloads on infected machines via a GUI. It’s a clear example of how attackers are weaponizing AI to accelerate software supply chain attacks."