Planted AGENTS.md in Downloads turned Codex into malware install

Tried

Open Codex or Claude Code from ~/Downloads after browsing (or letting an agent browse) the open web

Broke

Site planted AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md with no click; Codex rewrote ~/.codex/config.toml and installed function-color (>90%); Claude Code base-URL redirect leaked OAuth (~50%)

Fix

Never run coding agents from Downloads; treat stray AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md as hostile; check config for unexpected MCP servers or ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL; rotate tokens if found

Original source · ← All stories