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Model Namespace Reuse Attack Demonstrated Against AI Supply Chains

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Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have demonstrated a new AI supply chain attack method, Model Namespace Reuse, which targets platforms like Hugging Face. This method allows attackers to register names of deleted or transferred models, deploying malicious AI models and achieving arbitrary code execution. The attack was successfully demonstrated against Google’s Vertex AI and Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry, and it poses a risk to open-source projects. The attack method exploits the reuse of model names, enabling threat actors to register accounts with targeted developer names and create malicious models. This can lead to unauthorized access to underlying infrastructure and initial access points into user environments. Thousands of open-source repositories are potentially vulnerable to this attack. Google, Microsoft, and Hugging Face have been notified, and Google has started daily scans to mitigate the risk. Palo Alto Networks recommends pinning models to specific commits, cloning models, and scanning code for model references to enhance security.

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  1. 04.09.2025 15:59 📰 1 articles

    Model Namespace Reuse Attack Demonstrated Against AI Supply Chains

    Researchers at Palo Alto Networks demonstrated a new AI supply chain attack method, Model Namespace Reuse, which targets platforms like Hugging Face. The attack was successfully demonstrated against Google’s Vertex AI and Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry, and it poses a risk to open-source projects. The attack method exploits the reuse of model names, enabling threat actors to register accounts with targeted developer names and create malicious models. This can lead to unauthorized access to underlying infrastructure and initial access points into user environments. Thousands of open-source repositories are potentially vulnerable to this attack.

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