Occasionally I’ll find my computer slowing down dramatically only to realize a VS Code MCP server is using enough RAM to put me 50GB deep into Swap usage.

The thing is VS Code isn’t even my main IDE, I just use it to browse projects and as a text editor. I don’t need or want it to run an MCP server and I don’t know why it’s doing it.

I’m limited in my ability to provide more details, because I just killed the process last time, to move on with work, and didn’t take notes on what it was exactly. I’ll do that next time.

Has anybody else experienced something like this? It’s a very hard problem to search for - everybody wants to run MCP servers, not stop them.

Alternative press article: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/self-spreading-glassworm-malware-hits-openvsx-vs-code-registries/

Identified extensions are mainly on OpenVSX - an alternative VS Code Extension Marketplace.

Update (Oct 19, 2025): A new infected extension detected in Microsoft's VSCode marketplace - still active.

Bleepingcomputer:

Microsoft has removed the malicious extension frrom its marketplace following the researchers' alert.