The Open Worldwide Application Security Project has a brand-new top 10 security list tailored for the modern era, and it debuts a Universal Skill Format to add consistency and security to the AI add-ons.
August 21, 2026
In early July, a cyberattacker reserved a look-alike domain impersonating a popular agentic AI work platform, Paperclip, and produced both Trojanized Python packages and weaponized AI skills to compromise users' machines and steal a variety of credentials and sensitive information. The incident showcases why the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) decided to poll practitioners earlier this year on that type of risk, which has now resulted in a first-of-its-kind candidate list of the top 10 security issues for agentic skills. Holding the current No. 1 spot? Malicious Skills.
The ability to add on features and capabilities through "skills" — natural-language and coded recipes for agentic platforms — makes AI agents much more capable but also adds a significant vector for untrusted input and malicious code, while a lack of security models and capabilities makes even legitimate skills subject to abuse. So, the OWASP move appears necessary: In the July incident, for example, automated scanners detected the Python packages within hours. The Trojanized skills, however, escaped detection and quickly racked up more than 300,000 installs each, according to research published on Aug. 6.
