Ledger / 17 Jul 2025
Malicious wiper prompt shipped in Amazon Q Developer VS Code extension
Strong
AWS confirms attacker code was auto-released; the wiper prompt text and failed execution come from AWS and press, and this page does not quote the prompt itself.
Via an over-scoped build token the attacker committed instructions aimed at the Amazon Q coding agent, directing it to reset a system to near-factory state and delete cloud resources. The attacker later said it was meant as a warning. AWS says no customer environment was affected.
“the threat actor was able to commit malicious code into the extension's open-source repository that was automatically included in a release.”Amazon Web Services
Sources
- AWS-2025-015 security bulletinAmazon Web Services · 23 Jul 2025 · primary source
- Date
- 17 Jul 2025
- Disclosed
- 23 Jul 2025
- Actor
- lkmanka58 (alias) (unknown), as attributed by Amazon Web Services
- Targets
- Amazon Q Developer extension for VS Code (about 1M installs), release 1.84.0
- What the AI did
- Supply chain, Agentic intrusion
- Model
- Amazon Q Developer agent (target of the prompt)
- Model family
- Amazon
- Model basis
- stated by researcher
- Autonomy
- autonomous
- Outcome
- Prompt told the agent to wipe local files and delete AWS resources; AWS and others report it failed to execute. Fixed in 1.85.0.