AI Threat Watch: AI-Enabled

Detecting and countering misuse of AI: September 2026

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Anthropic describes actors who automate whole intrusion chains with AI agents. One Russian-speaking espionage operator had agents rebuild malware whenever a security product detected it, and used AI to sort hundreds of gigabytes of stolen data.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Anthropic | Actors: GTG-20006, Midnight Blizzard | Attribution: Russia, per Anthropic (confidence not stated)

REF6045: Mexican banking fraud toolkit with signs of AI-assisted development

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:43:43 GMT

Elastic Security Labs documented REF6045, an operator-assisted banking fraud campaign using ClickFix fake-CAPTCHA lures to install a PowerShell toolkit called SCMBANKER against Mexican bank, fintech, and crypto exchange customers. The toolkit enables session monitoring, screenshots, vishing overlays, clipboard hijacking, and RAT deployment, and its scripts show artifacts suggesting an LLM was used to write most of th

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Elastic Security Labs | Malware: SCMBANKER, Remote Utilities | Attribution: not-stated, per Elastic Security Labs (confidence not stated)

Mycelium Framework: First Ever Witnessed AI-as-a-Service Botnet

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:44:11 GMT

Flare researchers describe an underground forum advertisement for 'Mycelium Framework,' a botnet claiming to classify infected machines by compute, GPU, stolen AI API keys and local models, then route AI inference, social engineering and other tasks accordingly. No source code or proof of execution was provided, and most individual techniques are previously documented, so the AI-as-a-service claims remain unverified.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Flare | Malware: Mycelium Framework, Mirai, TeamTNT, DorkBot, RageBot, Phorpiex, IRCBot.HI | Vulnerabilities: CVE-2021-22205

JADEPUFFER: Agentic ransomware for automated database extortion

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:43:36 GMT

Sysdig's Threat Research Team documented what they assess to be the first fully agentic ransomware operation, dubbed JADEPUFFER, where an LLM autonomously gained access via a Langflow RCE flaw, harvested credentials, exploited Nacos authentication bypasses, and encrypted and destroyed a victim's production database for extortion. The payloads showed self-narrating reasoning and adaptive retries with no human interven

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Sysdig | Actors: JADEPUFFER | Malware: JADEPUFFER | Vulnerabilities: CVE-2025-3248, CVE-2021-29441

Threat Actors Weaponize AI Hype to Deliver AsyncRAT

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:42:26 GMT

FortiGuard Labs documented a multi-stage Windows malware campaign using fake AI-themed documents and guides as lures to deliver AsyncRAT via AutoHotkey-based loaders and process hollowing. Chinese-language code artifacts and structured coding style suggest the attackers used generative AI tools to help build the malware, though this is inferred rather than confirmed.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: FortiGuard Labs | Malware: AsyncRAT, AutoHotkey, clay_Client

What we learned mapping a year's worth of AI-enabled cyber threats

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:41:04 GMT

Anthropic analyzed 832 accounts banned for malicious cyber activity between March 2025 and March 2026, mapping their techniques to MITRE ATT&CK. They found AI use shifting from initial access to post-compromise activity, risk scores rising over time, and the framework failing to capture autonomous agentic orchestration seen in a November 2025 state-sponsored espionage case.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Anthropic | Malware: Claude Code

GTIG AI Threat Tracker: Adversaries Leverage AI for Vulnerability Exploitation, Augmented Operations, and Initial Access

Tue, 12 May 2026 06:00:00 GMT

GTIG reports adversaries applying AI to vulnerability exploitation, initial access and faster development of evasive, polymorphic malware. It also covers supply chain attacks against AI components, and notes no actor has yet bypassed the core safety logic of frontier models.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Google Threat Intelligence Group

Vibe Hacking: Two AI-Augmented Campaigns Target Government and Financial Sectors in Latin America

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:40:31 GMT

Trend Micro identified two campaigns, SHADOW-AETHER-040 and SHADOW-AETHER-064, using agentic AI (including Claude) to drive intrusions from initial access to data exfiltration against government and financial targets in Mexico and Brazil. The AI agents dynamically generated custom tools and backdoors, used jailbreaking via fake red-team pretexts, and integrated with Shodan and VulDB for reconnaissance.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Trend Micro | Actors: SHADOW-AETHER-040, SHADOW-AETHER-064 | Malware: Chisel, Neo-reGeorg, CrackMapExec, Impacket, implante_http, ProxyChains, PetitPotam

A Single Operator, Two AI Platforms, Nine Government Agencies: The Full Technical Report

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:40:23 GMT

Gambit Security's forensic report describes a single operator who used Claude Code and OpenAI's GPT-4.1 as core operational tools to breach nine Mexican government organizations and exfiltrate hundreds of millions of records between December 2025 and February 2026. Recovered materials show over 400 custom attack scripts, 20 tailored exploits, and thousands of AI-generated commands used to compress attack timelines an

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Gambit Security | Attribution: Mexico, per Gambit Security (confidence not stated)

A Slopoly start to AI-enhanced ransomware attacks

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:40:16 GMT

IBM X-Force found a likely AI-generated PowerShell C2 backdoor, dubbed Slopoly, deployed by ransomware group Hive0163 during a live intrusion using ClickFix, NodeSnake, InterlockRAT and Interlock ransomware. The malware is technically unremarkable but shows guardrail bypass and signals adoption of AI-assisted malware development among established ransomware actors.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: IBM X-Force | Actors: Hive0163, ITG23, TA569, TAG-124 | Malware: Slopoly, NodeSnake, InterlockRAT, Interlock, JunkFiction, Broomstick, Supper, PortStarter

Disrupting malicious uses of AI

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

OpenAI's case studies show models used as one step in larger workflows that also rely on websites and social accounts: romance and recovery scams, covert influence operations, and a state-linked harassment effort.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: OpenAI | Actors: Rybar

LLMs in the Kill Chain: Inside a Custom MCP Targeting FortiGate Devices Across Continents

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:39:34 GMT

Researchers found an exposed server revealing a threat actor using a custom MCP server (ARXON) with DeepSeek and Claude Code to automate reconnaissance, attack planning, and exploitation of compromised FortiGate devices across thousands of targets in over 100 countries. The actor evolved from using open-source HexStrike MCP tooling in December 2025 to fully custom orchestration (ARXON and CHECKER2) by February 2026,

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Hunt.io / cyberandramen.net | Malware: ARXON, CHECKER2, HexStrike, ntlmrelayx.py, Impacket, Metasploit, BloodHound, Nuclei | Vulnerabilities: CVE-2019-6693, CVE-2026-24061, CVE-2025-33073, CVE-2023-27532, CVE-2019-7192

AI-augmented threat actor accesses FortiGate devices at scale

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:39:05 GMT

Amazon Threat Intelligence documented a Russian-speaking, financially motivated actor using multiple commercial LLMs to compromise over 600 FortiGate devices in 55+ countries via exposed management interfaces and weak credentials, not exploits. AI generated attack plans, custom Go/Python tooling, and reconnaissance scripts, letting a low-skill actor achieve broad operational scale, though it still failed against hard

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Amazon Threat Intelligence | Actors: Ed1s0nZ | Malware: Meterpreter, mimikatz, gogo, Nuclei, CyberStrikeAI, PrivHunterAI, InfiltrateX, watermark-tool | Vulnerabilities: CVE-2019-7192, CVE-2023-27532, CVE-2024-40711

PromptSpy ushers in the era of Android threats using GenAI

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:39:17 GMT

ESET found PromptSpy, Android malware that queries Google's Gemini with UI XML dumps to get step-by-step instructions for locking itself into the recent apps list, aiding persistence. The malware also deploys a VNC module for remote device control and targets users in Argentina; no live samples have been seen in telemetry, suggesting it may still be a proof of concept.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: ESET Research | Malware: PromptSpy, VNCSpy, PromptLock, Android.Phantom, Android/Phishing.Agent.M | Attribution: China, per ESET (medium confidence)

GTIG AI Threat Tracker: Distillation, Experimentation, and (Continued) Integration of AI for Adversarial Use

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Quarterly view of how actors linked to North Korea, Iran, China and Russia used AI in late 2025. GTIG saw no breakthrough capability, but disrupted frequent model extraction attempts against its own models.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Google Threat Intelligence Group | Attribution: North Korea, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); Iran, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); China, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); Russia, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated)

Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 06:00:00 GMT

A group tasked Claude Code with running intrusions against roughly 30 organisations, with the model carrying out an estimated 80 to 90 percent of tactical work. Anthropic validated a handful of successful compromises before banning the accounts.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Anthropic | Actors: GTG-1002 | Attribution: China, per Anthropic (high confidence)

GTIG AI Threat Tracker: Advances in Threat Actor Usage of AI Tools

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 06:00:00 GMT

GTIG documents the first malware families that query an LLM during execution to generate scripts and rewrite their own code. It also describes actors posing as students or researchers to talk Gemini past its safeguards.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Google Threat Intelligence Group | Actors: APT28 | Malware: PROMPTFLUX, PROMPTSTEAL

Disrupting malicious uses of AI: October 2025

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 06:00:00 GMT

OpenAI details banned accounts tied to state actors and criminal groups that used ChatGPT for malware development, scams and surveillance tooling. It reports no evidence that its models gave attackers novel offensive capability.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: OpenAI

SentinelOne finds MalTerminal malware using OpenAI GPT-4

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 06:00:00 GMT

SentinelLABS hunted for binaries carrying LLM API keys and embedded prompts, and found MalTerminal, which asks GPT-4 to write ransomware or a reverse shell at runtime. A retired API endpoint dates it before November 2023. No live use is known.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Dataconomy | Malware: MalTerminal

Threat Intelligence Report: August 2025

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 06:00:00 GMT

Introduces vibe hacking: one criminal used Claude Code to run data extortion against at least 17 organisations. Other cases cover North Korean remote worker fraud, ransomware sold by a developer with little coding skill, and AI across the fraud ecosystem.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Anthropic | Actors: North Korean IT workers | Malware: Claude Code, Claude | Attribution: North Korea, per Anthropic (confidence not stated); China, per Anthropic (confidence not stated)

First known AI-powered ransomware uncovered by ESET Research

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 06:00:00 GMT

PromptLock runs OpenAI's gpt-oss-20b locally through Ollama to generate Lua scripts that enumerate, exfiltrate and encrypt files. ESET later confirmed the samples match an academic prototype, not malware deployed in attacks.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: ESET Research | Malware: PromptLock

CERT-UA Discovers LAMEHUG Malware Linked to APT28, Using LLM for Phishing Campaign

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 06:00:00 GMT

LAMEHUG, delivered by phishing to Ukrainian government bodies, sends task descriptions to a Qwen model hosted on Hugging Face and runs the Windows commands it returns.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: The Hacker News | Actors: APT28, UAC-0001 | Malware: LAMEHUG | Attribution: Russia, per CERT-UA (medium confidence)

Operating Multi-Client Influence Networks Across Platforms

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:37:33 GMT

Anthropic disrupted an influence-as-a-service operation that used Claude to manage over 100 social media personas across X and Facebook, making tactical decisions on engagement and generating image prompts. The operation served at least four distinct clients pushing narratives on European, Iranian, UAE, and Kenyan interests, prioritizing persistence and relationship-building over viral spread. No nation-state attribu

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Anthropic | Malware: Claude

Adversarial Misuse of Generative AI

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 06:00:00 GMT

GTIG's first analysis of how government-backed groups used Gemini. Actors from Iran, China, North Korea and Russia used it for research, coding help and content, and did not develop novel capabilities with it.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Google Threat Intelligence Group | Actors: APT43 | Attribution: Iran, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); China, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); North Korea, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated); Russia, per Google Threat Intelligence Group (confidence not stated)

Google disrupted over 10,000 instances of DRAGONBRIDGE activity in Q1 2024

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:37:10 GMT

Google's TAG reports on DRAGONBRIDGE, a PRC-linked influence operation, disrupting over 10,000 instances in Q1 2024 across YouTube and Blogger, totaling 175,000 lifetime. The actor increasingly used generative AI, including AI-generated news anchors and synthetic voiceovers, to push narratives around Taiwan's election and US social issues, though engagement remained largely inauthentic and low.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Google Threat Analysis Group | Actors: DRAGONBRIDGE | Attribution: China, per Google Threat Analysis Group (high confidence)

AI and Covert Influence Operations: Latest Trends

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:37:00 GMT

OpenAI describes disrupting five covert influence operations from Russia, China, Iran and an Israeli commercial firm that used its models to generate and refine content, translate text, and fake engagement across social platforms. None of the operations achieved meaningful audience engagement, scoring no higher than Category 2 on the Breakout Scale.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: OpenAI | Actors: Bad Grammar, Doppelganger, Spamouflage, International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), Zero Zeno, STOIC | Attribution: Russia, per OpenAI (confidence not stated); China, per OpenAI (confidence not stated); Iran, per OpenAI (confidence not stated); Israel, per OpenAI (confidence not stated)

Staying ahead of threat actors in the age of AI

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 06:00:00 GMT

Microsoft and OpenAI published the first joint account of state-affiliated groups using LLMs, mostly for reconnaissance, scripting help and social engineering content. The accounts were disabled.

AI-Enabled (Attackers using AI) | Source: Microsoft Threat Intelligence | Actors: Forest Blizzard, Emerald Sleet, Crimson Sandstorm, Charcoal Typhoon, Salmon Typhoon | Attribution: Russia, per Microsoft (confidence not stated); North Korea, per Microsoft (confidence not stated); Iran, per Microsoft (confidence not stated); China, per Microsoft (confidence not stated)