[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-new-attack-steals-hidden-ai-agent-skills-through-normal-use":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},5897,"new-attack-steals-hidden-ai-agent-skills-through-normal-use","New Attack Steals Hidden AI Agent Skills Through Normal Use","Researchers show a black-box technique called Daydreaming can reconstruct over 86% of a paid AI agent's secret skill just by using it normally.","A new attack can steal a hosted AI agent's proprietary skill files without ever asking to see them.\n\nResearchers describe Daydreaming, a black-box technique that reconstructs a hosted agent's hidden \"skill\" - the bundled instructions, reference data, and helper code that let a general-purpose agent handle a specialized task. Instead of requesting the skill directly, the method submits ordinary tasks to the service, uses the results to test hypotheses about the skill's hidden behaviors, and rebuilds each file using attacker-controlled shadow agents and local checks. Tested across seven skills and four victim models, it recovered 86.8% of a skill's original capability at the most restricted of three access levels the paper defines, where the attacker sees only the final response and returned files. It needed a median of just 32 calls per skill, even with disclosure defenses that block direct requests for the skill turned on.\n\nThe result undercuts a common assumption behind agent skill marketplaces: that hiding the underlying files and filtering suspicious requests is enough to protect them. If ordinary task completion leaks nearly the whole product, providers selling access to specialized agent skills have a business-model problem, not just a bug to patch. The method also beat a prior extraction technique, SigLeak, by close to 4x, suggesting the gap between looking protected and being protected is wider than assumed.\n\nIt's the same lesson API-based model distillation taught a few years back: if the output is useful enough to sell, it's useful enough to reverse-engineer.","[\"ai-agents\",\"ai-security\",\"model-extraction\",\"research\"]","2026-08-28T04:00:00.000Z","2026-08-28T06:01:15.267Z","2026-08-28T06:01:27.199Z","published",null,[],"security",[26,27,28,29],"ai-agents","ai-security","model-extraction","research",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2608.26733",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,46,51,56,61,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,101],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",3351,"2026-08-30T14:51:33.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":24,"count":44,"latest_published_at":45},"Security",503,"2026-08-29T10:30:00.000Z",{"name":47,"slug":48,"count":49,"latest_published_at":50},"Policy","policy",244,"2026-08-30T15:35:10.000Z",{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Hardware","hardware",148,"2026-08-27T15:33:14.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",95,"2026-08-18T16:05:00.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Science","science",91,"2026-08-20T10:01:48.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",52,"2026-08-25T18:55:12.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"General","general",33,"2026-08-18T22:18:13.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]