Wiper prompt slipped into Amazon Q's official VS Code extension

Amazon Web Services, disclosed 23 Jul 2025. Supply chain and access Data destroyed Low

An attacker used an over-scoped GitHub token in AWS's build pipeline to insert a prompt telling the Amazon Q coding assistant to wipe local files and cloud resources. The tampered version shipped to users of an extension with nearly a million installs, but a syntax error stopped it from running. AWS pulled it and released a fix.

Disclosed

23 Jul 2025

Organization

Amazon Web Services

Vendor

Amazon

Product

Amazon Q Developer

Kind of AI

Coding agent

AI's role

Poisoned supply chain

How it happened

Supply chain and access: Poisoned package

Harm

Data destroyed

Data involved

Unknown

Reach

No known access

Severity

Low

Model at fault

No

Status

Confirmed

Vulnerability IDs

CVE-2025-8217

Sources

1. https://github.com/aws/aws-toolkit-vscode/security/advisories/GHSA-7g7f-ff96-5gcw
2. https://www.scworld.com/news/amazon-q-extension-for-vs-code-reportedly-injected-with-wiper-prompt