The Dark Side of AI: The Hidden Supply Chain Risks in Open-Source AI Models - Guy Nachshon, Checkmarx#

Guy Nachshon, Security Researcher, Checkmarx

• Why: As the PM adopts open models and AI tooling, this is a class of supply-chain risk that most infrastructure teams haven't priced in — models themselves as a malware delivery vector, demonstrated live.
• What: Research on weak points in how AI models are constructed, with demos of models manipulated into malicious behavior — including a "Malicious Copilot" case study where a code-completion model is trained to target specific victims by embedding malicious code — plus practical takeaways for companies using generative AI/LLMs. (from abstract only)
• How: Attacks via the model artifact itself (training-data and fine-tuning manipulation) rather than the surrounding software, so standard software supply-chain controls (SBOMs, scanning) don't catch them.
• Where applicable: Any organization consuming open-weights models or AI IDE plugins; general risk, not org-specific. Security-vendor research, but with concrete demonstrated attacks, which is what gives it weight.