Villager, a new penetration-testing tool linked to a suspicious China-based company and described by researchers as "Cobalt Strike's AI successor," has been downloaded about 10,000 times since its release in July.

The package, published on Python Package Index, operates as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client and integrates multiple security tools. It includes Kali Linux, which legitimate defenders use to automate penetration testing, and it contains hundreds of tools that can also be used to launch cyber attacks at scale. Villager also contains DeepSeek AI models to automate testing workflows, plus a ton of other AI tools like a database of 4,201 AI system prompts to generate exploits and other mechanisms to make it difficult to detect.

"Like Cobalt Strike, it can be used for legitimat

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