Slopsquatting: a new supply chain attack - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 05:00:20 pm
content: A supply chain squatting attack, employing non-existent package names generated while throwing LLM dice.The Rise of Slopsquatting: How AI Hallucinations Are Fueling a New Class of Supply Chain Attacksfrom Sarah Gooding(after Schneier)

author: D.Burnette
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 05:57:43 pm
content: Thanks for sharing. That is a clever attack, particularly with the disaster that is 'vibe coding'. 🤮The hallucination problem has been a major barrier for me. I've had some harsh conversations around AI use over the past couple years, because people seem to ignore its stochastic nature. "AI said..." is always disappointing to hear when there exists a source of absolute truth for a question. An example would be regulatory standards, where what the standard says is the requirement, no matter what AI says. Copilot can spit out circuit creepage and clearance requirements from an IEC standard, but does so incorrectly, citing the wrong tables and wrong parameters.Or (related to the article), validated python libraries...PyPI is OK with validating their libraries most of the time, but maybe the model should verify against PyPI's of popular packages? Or at least some curated lists? Or maybe at least biasing the output with respect to popularity:https://pypilb.vercel.app/?I've been wondering how LLMs could bridge the gap between their stochastic nature and the need for validated output. Some outputs should be constrained only to validated answers. At the simplest, basic arithmetic should never be incorrect. But how does an LLM get trained to recognize answers that should not have a stochastic output without manually identifying training nodes? Messy...

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 06:12:57 pm
content: Quote from: D.Burnette on April 15, 2025, 05:57:43 pmyeh, I've seen questions for forums like: I just just bought a thing to hang on the wall, it came with instructions from the manufacturer that says do A, but ChatGPT says do B, what should I do ....

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 08:16:32 pm
content: Clarification for the clueless (those like me):I read the linked article above. It explains that slopsquatting is where LLMs hallucinate "packges".Nowhere does it 'splain what a "package" is.I figured out that this doesnotmean a package left on someone's porch.It refers to something software-related. But what, exactly?A "thanks for the clue-by-four" K

author: UnijunctionTransistor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 08:36:11 pm
content: From Deepseek;“In **AI (Artificial Intelligence)** and **software development** more broadly, a **package** is a collection of pre-written code, libraries, and tools that are bundled together to perform specific tasks. Packages help developers avoid writing everything from scratch, speeding up development and improving efficiency.”

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 08:40:05 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on April 15, 2025, 08:16:32 pmEffectively a software library, with the implication that it might be automatically downloaded from a (random) server.Your application is compiled, then the library is added and your program is linked to the relevant functions/procedures in the library, thus creating the executable program.

author: D.Burnette
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 08:45:31 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on April 15, 2025, 08:16:32 pmYeah, the article has a few badly defined terms...Package/library:this is a bundle of code/resources that you can use in your own program instead of writing from the ground up. For instance, I use the Python NumPy library regularly to calculate FFTs. I can simply write "Import numpy as ImLazy" in my program to let it know I want to use its commands, then specify the parameters like frequency, etc. for the FFT. I can then execute ImLazy.fft.fft (to the programmers: I know, this is -ish) and get my FFT. Then I have a calculated FFT I can graph with another package like matplotlib, or export it to a CSV or whatever. I don't have to write code to loop through each frequency slice and whatnot. Especially in Python, libraries can be written in another faster executing language. So I can be lazy and use Python, but the FFT library can be written in C (as NumPy is), and execute significantly faster than it would if written in python.Supply Chain:This bugged me. I don't like the phrase applied to software. They are pretty much talking about a software bill of materials: The collection of libraries, software tools, compilers, and random other things that come together to make a chunk of finished code possible. So "infecting a supply chain" pretty much means tricking users into incorporating malicious elements like fake libraries into their toolchest.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2025, 08:56:41 pm
content: A typical problem in technical nomenclature.Instead of generating a new term for a new procedure or phenomenon, which is "neologism", just use an existing word or phrase that has nothing to do with the new feature and apply it."Supply chain" in its original meaning has an easy-to-understand meaning.