{"id":576,"date":"2025-09-05T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:30:12","slug":"coinbases-favored-ai-code-tool-can-be-easily-hacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576\/","title":{"rendered":"Coinbase\u2019s Favored AI Code Tool Can Be Easily Hacked"},"content":{"rendered":"

The artificial intelligence coding tool favored by the likes of crypto exchange Coinbase has a vulnerability allowing hackers to silently inject malware and \u201cspread itself across an organization,\u201d says a cybersecurity firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HiddenLayer reported<\/a> on Thursday that a \u201cCopyPasta License Attack\u201d can hide malicious instructions in common developer files to \u201cintroduce deliberate vulnerabilities into codebases that would otherwise be secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy convincing the underlying model that our payload is actually an important license file that must be included as a comment in every file that is edited by the agent, we can quickly distribute the prompt injection across entire codebases with minimal effort,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

HiddenLayer predominantly tested the virus on Cursor, an AI-powered coding tool that Coinbase\u2019s engineering team said<\/a> in August was the preferred tool<\/a> for most of its developers and had been used by \u201cevery Coinbase engineer\u201d by February.<\/p>\n

AI coding tools Windsurf, Kiro, and Aider were also shown to be vulnerable to the attack, according to HiddenLayer.<\/p>\n

CopyPasta hides in common files<\/p>\n

HiddenLayer explained that the CopyPasta attack puts hidden instructions, or \u201cprompt injections,\u201d into LICENSE.txt and README.md files that can direct AI coding tools<\/a> without a user knowing.<\/p>\n

The virus, or the prompt injection for the AI, is hidden in a markdown comment \u2014 text within a README file used for adding explainers or notes that aren\u2019t shown when it\u2019s rendered into its final format.<\/p>\n

The virus is included in a markdown comment (left), which is hidden from the user-facing render (right). Source: HiddenLayer<\/a><\/p>\n

HiddenLayer created a code repository with the virus and asked Cursor to use it, and the hidden instructions saw it copy the prompt injection across to the new files it created.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis mechanism could be adapted to achieve far more nefarious results,\u201d the company said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInjected code could stage a backdoor, silently exfiltrate sensitive data, introduce resource-draining operations that cripple systems, or manipulate critical files to disrupt development and production environments,\u201d HiddenLayer added. \u201cAll while being buried deep inside files to avoid immediate detection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coinbase boss slammed for \u201cinsane\u201d use of AI<\/p>\n

It came after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Wednesday that AI has written up to 40% of its code<\/a> and wants to expand this to 50% next month, which prompted backlash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a giant red flag for any security sensitive business,\u201d said<\/a> decentralized exchange Dango founder Larry Lyu.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoftware company leaders: don\u2019t do this. AI is a tool, but mandating its use at a certain level is insane,\u201d said<\/a> Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Jonathan Aldrich. \u201cI have no interest in using Coinbase, but even if I did, I certainly would not trust it with my money after seeing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delphi Consulting head Ashwath Balakrishnan called<\/a> Coinbase\u2019s goal \u201cperformative and vague,\u201d and it should instead focus on \u201cnew features and fixing existing bugs,\u201d while longtime Bitcoiner Alex Pila\u0159 said<\/a> that as a major crypto custodian, Coinbase \u201cshould prioritize security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coinbase uses AI in \u201cless-sensitive data backends\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Armstrong said in his post that AI-generated code \u201cneeds to be reviewed and understood\u201d and not all areas of the exchange can use it, but it should be used \u201cresponsibly as much as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Criminals are \u2018vibe hacking\u2019 with AI at unprecedented levels: Anthropic<\/a><\/p>\n

The Coinbase engineering team\u2019s blog post said that AI adoption was deepest in teams working on front-end user interfaces and \u201cless-sensitive data backends,\u201d while \u201ccomplex and system-critical exchange systems\u201d had seen a slower uptake.<\/p>\n

The percent of AI-created lines of code (LOC) across Coinbase shows its institutional dev team uses AI the least. Source: Coinbase<\/a><\/p>\n

The team added that using AI for coding \u201cis not a magic-bullet we should expect teams to universally adopt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong sacked devs who shirked AI<\/p>\n

Armstrong said<\/a> on Stripe co-founder John Collison\u2019s podcast last month that he fired engineers who didn\u2019t try AI tools after Coinbase bought licenses for Cursor and GitHub Copilot.<\/p>\n

He recounted being told it would take months to get the engineers to use AI, admitting he \u201cwent rogue\u201d and told all engineers it was mandatory that they use the tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018AI’s important, we need you to all learn it and at least onboard. You don\u2019t have to use it every day yet until we do some training, but at least onboard by the end of the week, and if not, I\u2019m hosting a meeting on Saturday with everybody who hasn\u2019t done it, and I\u2019d like to meet with you to understand why,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, Armstrong said there were a few engineers who hadn\u2019t used AI and didn\u2019t present a good reason why, and \u201cthey got fired,\u201d admitting it was a \u201cheavy-handed approach\u201d that \u201csome people really didn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI Eye: Everybody hates GPT-5, AI shows social media can\u2019t be fixed<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The artificial intelligence coding tool favored by the likes of crypto exchange Coinbase has a vulnerability allowing hackers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}