Security researchers have discovered hundreds of copies of a Chinese-made AI hacking tool publicly exposed to the internet for anyone to access, potentially allowing outsiders to launch cyberattacks against unsuspecting targets.
The hacking software, called Artex, is an open source autonomous penetration testing tool, meaning software that automatically probes computer systems for weaknesses, and it’s been linked to several cyberattacks since its public release in July. As open source software, it’s free for anyone to download and run on their own servers, making it a popular tool for those who cannot access Anthropic or OpenAI’s most advanced cybersecurity AI models for discovering security vulnerabilities. Microsoft has previously described Artex as a system of AI agents that can conduct cyberattacks “from reconnaissance through data exfiltration with little needed human interaction.”
Read more…
Source: TechCrunch
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Play ransomware gang uses custom Shadow Volume Copy data-theft tool
April 19, 2023
The Play ransomware group has developed two custom tools in .NET, namely Grixba and VSS Copying Tool, which it uses to improve the effectiveness of its cyberattacks. The two tools enable attackers to enumerate users and computers in compromised networks, gather information about security, backup, and remote administration software, and easily copy files from Volume Shadow ...
- Capita IT breach gets worse as Black Basta claims it’s now selling off stolen data
April 18, 2023
Black Basta, the extortionists who claimed they were the ones who lately broke into Capita, have reportedly put up for sale sensitive details, including bank account information, addresses, and passport photos, stolen from the IT outsourcing giant. A spokesperson for the London-based corporation, which has UK government contracts totaling £6.5 billion ($8 billion), said it hasn’t ...
- Nation-state threat actor Mint Sandstorm refines tradecraft to attack high-value targets
April 18, 2023
Over the past several months, Microsoft has observed a mature subgroup of Mint Sandstorm, an Iranian nation-state actor previously tracked as PHOSPHORUS, refining its tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). Specifically, this subset has rapidly weaponized N-day vulnerabilities in common enterprise applications and conducted highly-targeted phishing campaigns to quickly and successfully access environments of interest. This Mint ...
- CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories
April 18, 2023
CISA released four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on April 18, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations: ICSA-23-108-01 Omron CSCJ Series ICSA-23-108-02 Schneider Electric Easy UPS Online Monitoring Software Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity ...
- State-sponsored campaigns target global network infrastructure
April 18, 2023
Recently, the UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) released a report on a sustained campaign by a Russian intelligence agency targeting a vulnerability in routers that Cisco had published a patch for in 2017. This campaign, dubbed “Jaguar Tooth,” is an example of a much broader trend of sophisticated adversaries targeting networking infrastructure to advance ...
- New QBot email attacks use PDF and WSF combo to install malware
April 17, 2023
QBot malware is now distributed in phishing campaigns utilizing PDFs and Windows Script Files (WSF) to infect Windows devices. Qbot (aka QakBot) is a former banking trojan that evolved into malware that provides initial access to corporate networks for other threat actors. This initial access is done by dropping additional payloads, such as Cobalt Strike, Brute ...