Risk
Agentic Supply Chain Compromise
An attacker-controlled artifact reaches an AI coding agent through plugin resolution, symlink paths, model cache, or CI trigger, and executes with the agent's privileges.
Exposure
Agentic Supply Chain Compromise occurs when an AI coding agent resolves a dependency, loads a configuration file, processes a symlink path, reads a model cache entry, or executes a tool invocation from a source that an external attacker controls.
Unlike traditional software supply chain attacks, the agentic variant includes new vectors: trust dialogs that misrepresent the operation being approved, symlink resolution races in plugin directories, and MCP tool results that bypass output filters.
CVE and disclosure history (2026)
- GHSA-wpqr-6v78-jr5g (April 2026) — Google Gemini CLI CVSS 10.0. An external attacker triggers full supply chain compromise from a public GitHub issue. Pillar Security disclosure.
- SymJack (May 2026) — Symlink-hijack RCE in six AI coding agents simultaneously. Adversa AI disclosure.
- TrustFall (May 2026) — One-click RCE through trust dialog regression affecting Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot. Adversa AI disclosure.
- MemMorph (June 2026) — In-memory prompt override through attacker-controlled memory files.
Attack scenarios
- CI pipeline injection: Attacker opens a GitHub issue with crafted payload. The agent reads the issue as context, the payload becomes part of a tool call, the tool call executes with CI credentials.
- Plugin directory symlink race: Attacker creates a malicious MCP server config at path resolution time. The agent loads it as a trusted plugin. All subsequent tool invocations route through the attacker.
- Memory file override: Attacker writes to a shared memory file. The agent loads the corrupted memory block as system instruction. Policy enforcement depends on the content of attacker-controlled data.
Impact
Full compromise of the agent execution context: repository secrets, model API keys, deployment credentials, and downstream systems that the agent can access through its tool set.