Poisoned GGUF Templates Enable Inference-Time Supply Chain Attacks

# Poisoned GGUF Templates Enable Inference-Time Supply Chain Attacks

https://gcdradar.vercel.app/incidents/poisoned-gguf-templates-enable-inference-time-supply-chain-a · AIR-2026-0359 · closed 2026-08-14

- Lane: Research
- Severity: 1 (Research / proof of concept)
- Fix status: Fix status unknown
- First reported: 2026-07-31 (happened 2025-06)
- AI role: Attack on AI
- Products: GGUF

## Summary

Researchers demonstrated an inference-time supply-chain backdoor in GGUF templates that alters model and agent behavior without changing weights. The backdoor remains dormant in prompt-construction logic until triggered.

## What to do

No action recorded; read the sources below and the vendor's advisory.

## Latest updates

- 2026-07-31: Inference-Time Backdoors via Chat Templates: From LLM Supply Chains to Agentic System Compromise (https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04653)
- 2026-07-31: LLM Backdoors at the Inference Level: The Threat of Poisoned Templates (https://pillar.security/blog/llm-backdoors-at-the-inference-level-the-threat-of-poisoned-templates)
- 2026-07-31: Poisoned GGUF Templates: Inference-Time Supply Chain Attack (https://atlas.mitre.org/studies/AML.CS0064)

## Sources

- 2026-07-31 MITRE ATLAS: Poisoned GGUF Templates: Inference-Time Supply Chain Attack https://atlas.mitre.org/studies/AML.CS0064
- 2026-07-31 Pillar Security: LLM Backdoors at the Inference Level: The Threat of Poisoned Templates https://pillar.security/blog/llm-backdoors-at-the-inference-level-the-threat-of-poisoned-templates
- 2026-07-31 arXiv: Inference-Time Backdoors via Chat Templates: From LLM Supply Chains to Agentic System Compromise https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04653

Verify against the vendor's advisory before changing production. Data CC BY-SA 4.0, https://gcdradar.vercel.app.