{"slug": "ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk", "title": "ASCII smuggling isn't just an AI security risk", "summary": "The Register reports that ASCII smuggling, a technique that exploits Unicode control characters to hide malicious text, is not only an AI security risk but also affects other software, as demonstrated by a recent attack where AI agents executed a ransomware attack and left an 80-page security audit. The article highlights that such attacks are becoming more sophisticated and pose broader cybersecurity threats beyond AI systems.", "body_md": "### [AI](https://beta.theregister.com/tag/ai)\n\n- \nOn-PREM #### AMD's Threadripper Halo is a local-AI workstation for researchers with deep pocketsAI workstation promises to put up to 576 GB of HBM3e and 16 TB/s of memory bandwidth on your desk\n- \nai and ml #### Hugging Face is too important to fall into Nvidia's hands$12.9 billion deal will inevitably cement Nvidia's market dominance and harm competition in the process. Regulators should take note\n- \nai and ml #### Zuck's Muse to Spark joy with open weights release 'soon'While you wait, Meta says it’s taught the model to stop wasting tokens and ask for help a bit more often\n- \nai and ml #### With Gemini 3.8 Flash, Google reminds everyone it's still in the raceAI model scores well, runs fast, and doesn't cost too much (yet)\n- \nsecurity #### AI agents carried out every step of this ransomware attack – then left the victim an 80-page security auditAdding insult to injury\n\n### [Infosec](https://beta.theregister.com/security)\n\n- \nSecurity #### Russians are posing as Signal support to launch phishing attacksPLUS: US takes down Iranian propaganda sites; Marketing company asks 'Why Do We Have Your Information?' And more!\n- \nSecurity #### Microsoft patches failed to fix on-prem SharePoint, which is now under zero-day attackPLUS: China upgrades smartphone surveillance tools; Ring eases anti-snooping stance; and more\n- \nBlack Hat and DEF CON #### DEF CON Franklin project enlists hackers to harden critical infrastructureVoting village reports have been so successful, says Jeff Moss, that the whole of DEF CON will now be included\n- \nSecurity #### EQT buys majority share in Swiss cybersecurity biz AcronisWent at equivalent of $3.5B+ valuation for entire firm, though portion sold not specified\n- \nMalware Month #### Ten years since the first corp ransomware, Mikko Hyppönen sees no end in sightOn the plus side, infosec's a good bet for a long, stable career\n\n### [FOSS](https://beta.theregister.com/tag/FOSS)\n\n- \n#### Canonical shuttering some of its legacy chat channelsThe Ubuntu Pastebin went in June, IRC gets demoted next\n- \n#### Audacity audio-editing app no longer looks like it's from the early 2000sThe FOSS tool for audio editing has a fresh coat of paint, and new features to boot\n- \n#### Haiku OS rises / Beta 6 sails open web / Virtual winds fly fastA real alternative to running some kind of FOSS Unix clone\n- \n#### Offshoots of cancelled TrueNAS Core upgrade to FreeBSD 15Exeunt zVault stage right; enter FreeCORE and BSDnas\n- \n#### Debian votes to let contributors code with AIDisclosure optional, quality mandatory\n- \n#### LibreOffice 26.8 is out – local first, and with no AIIt looks a bit clunky, but it does the job – and on your own computer", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk", "canonical_source": "https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/09/04/ascii-smuggling-isnt-just-an-ai-security-risk/5294595", "published_at": "2026-09-04 19:23:25+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-07 03:26:36.626265+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["The Register", "AI agents"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-smuggling-isn-t-just-an-ai-security-risk.jsonld"}}