Anthropic VS code extension on Cursor backdoored for nearly 12 hours
Anthropic VS code extension on Cursor backdoored for nearly 12 hours
Anthropic's Claude model VS Code extension 2.1.313 has a backdoor vulnerability, threatening the machine security of 5000 developers; this malicious version is distributed through the official Cursor platform channel, and Anthropic has released version 2.1.314 to fix it.
Same story1 other outlet also reported this
- Ars Technica · AI··First·Reading now
Anthropic's Claude model VS Code extension 2.1.313 has a backdoor vulnerability threat to 5000 developers
- ITHome · AI··+8 h 27 min
The Cursor official store has appeared with a malicious Claude Code plugin, affecting approximately 5000 developers for about 11 hours.
Adds:Cursor marketplace was temporarily closed.
In order of publication · later reports are added as they appear · Compared by AI from each outlet’s title and summary
An official extension for Anthropic’s Claude model was backdoored and threatened as many as 5,000 developers' machines, multiple sources reported Friday. Anthropic so far has yet to warn customers of the incident.
The compromised package was a VS Code extension available in the marketplace of Cursor, a maker of AI-assisted developer tools, the company said Friday. The malicious version, 2.1.313, subsequently affected “at most 5,000 users,” presumably when they either downloaded it or their systems automatically fetched and installed it. Anthropic pushed version 2.1.314 several hours after the previous version became available on Cursor, according to independent researcher Kevin Beaumont. Both Beaumont and the CTO and co-founder of security firm Phorion said that version 2.1.313 was distributed through Anthropic’s official account on Cursor. So far, neither Cursor nor Anthropic has explained how the attackers gained control of the account.
In search of cloud credentials
“It was a supply-chain compromise where the attacker gained access to the official distribution channel,” Phorion CTO and co-founder Luke Roberts told Ars. “The malicious version 2.1.313 was posted to the official Anthropic account, effectively superseding 2.1.312. Extensions auto-update in Cursor by default, but users can configure this in settings.” Phorion has more details here.
Source: Ars Technica · AI · arstechnica.com