The new penetration testing tool Villager, which is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and associated with a China-based company, has attracted nearly 11,000 downloads on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository, raising concerns that it could be used by cybercriminals for malicious purposes.
This framework is believed to be the work of Cyberspike, which has positioned the tools as a solution for red teaming teams to automate testing workflows. The package was first uploaded to PyPI in late July 2025 by a user named stupidfish001, a former capture the flag (CTF) player for the Chinese team HSCSEC.
Villager's appearance comes shortly after Check Point that threat actors are attempting to leverage another emerging AI-powered offensive security tool, HexStrike AI, to exploit recently disclosed security vulnerabilities.
With the advent of genetic artificial intelligence (also known as GenAI) models, threat actors have exploited the technology for social engineering, technical and informational operations in ways that have likely contributed to increased speed, access to expertise and scale.
A key benefit of relying on such tools is that they lower the barrier to exploitation and shorten the time and effort required to execute such attacks. What once required highly skilled operators and weeks of manual development can now be automated using AI, offering malicious actors assistance with exploit creation, payload delivery, and even infrastructure setup.
The fact that Villager is available as a ready-to-use Python package means it offers attackers an easy way to integrate the tool into their workflows, Straiker, describing it as a “worrying development in AI-powered attack tools.”
Cyberspike first appeared in November 2023, when the domain “cyberspike[.]top” was registered under Changchun Anshanyuan Technology Co., Ltd., an AI company supposedly based in China. However, the only source of information about what the company does comes from a Chinese talent services platform called Liepin, raising questions about who is behind it.
Screenshots of the domain recorded at the Internet Archive reveal that the tool is promoted as a network attack simulation and post-penetration testing tool to help organizations assess and strengthen their cybersecurity posture.
Once installed, Cyberspike has been found to embed add-ons that are components of a remote access tool (RAT), allowing for invasive monitoring and control of victims using remote desktop access , Discord account hacking, keystroke logging, camera capture, and other surveillance functions. Further analysis has revealed similarities to a known RAT called AsyncRAT.
Villager appears to be Cyberspike's latest offering. Acting as a Model Context Protocol (MCP), it integrates with Kali Linux tools, LangChain's AI models, and DeepSeek to automate testing workflows, manage browser interactions, and issue commands.
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