Top AI Agents Built to Catch Malicious Code Can Be Tricked Into Running It

AI coding agents from Anthropic and OpenAI, designed to review code for security issues, can be tricked into executing malicious payloads when operating in autonomous mode. Researchers demonstrated a 'Friendly Fire' attack where a seemingly benign README.md instructs the agent to run a malicious script disguised as a legitimate build artifact. The attack bypasses safety checks by blending into normal project workflows, enabling code execution on the host without user interaction. Although currently a proof-of-concept, it highlights a critical design flaw in how AI agents interpret and act on untrusted instructions.

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