STUPID-2026-0022

AI vibe-coded Next.js app pinned vulnerable dependency — cryptominer compromised production server

7.0high
March 22, 2026Source checked

Why 7/10

One organisation's production server was compromised and ran a cryptominer until it was found and cleaned up. No data loss is reported.

Scope
3/4
A whole machine or drive, an organisation's production system or data, or many credentials
Recoverability
1/3
Fully recovered, with effort
Did it happen
2/2
Happened in real use
Beyond the user
1/1
Production systems, customers or third parties, or credentials and sensitive personal data

The score is the sum of these four factors. How each factor is scored · scored 2026-10-29

  1. Instruction given

    Build a Next.js web service from functional descriptions

  2. Expected behavior

    A secure, deployable web service using appropriate dependency versions

  3. Actual behavior

    AI pinned next@14.1.0 (or equivalent vulnerable version) with CVE-2025-29927, which was deployed and exploited to run a cryptominer in production

  4. Damage

    Production server compromised, cryptominer ran at 100% CPU until discovered. Remediated after incident.

Full write-up

A developer used an AI coding agent to build a Next.js web service via 'vibe coding' (building from functional descriptions). The agent pinned a dependency version that contained CVE-2025-29927, a Next.js middleware bypass vulnerability. The code passed all functional tests. The vulnerable version was deployed to production and subsequently exploited: an attacker used the CVE to deploy a cryptominer that ran the server at ~100% CPU continuously. The author notes the AI had no cost model for what dependency version selection means at runtime.

Classification

Domain
Frontend
Language
Javascript
MIT AI Risk Repository (our mapping)
2.2 AI system security vulnerabilities and attacks taxonomy

Related incidents

Cite this record
StupidLLM. "STUPID-2026-0022: AI vibe-coded Next.js app pinned vulnerable dependency — cryptominer compromised production server." AI Agent Incident Database, 2026. https://www.stupidllm.com/incident/STUPID-2026-0022/ (accessed 2026-10-29). CC BY 4.0.

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