Criminals Use Vibe Coding To Create Malware

Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 warns that criminals are likely using "vibe coding"—AI-assisted coding—to develop malware, Unit 42 senior consulting director Kate Middagh said in a Thursday blog shared with The Register. The team outlines the SHIELD framework (Separation, Human in the Loop, Input/Output validation, Enforce helper models, Least Agency, Defensive controls) to mitigate risks such as hallucinations, LLM API calls in malware, and data exfiltration; about half of organizations lack AI limits.