GOLD OGRE automated Aur0ra intrusions with Cursor and Claude
Original title: Hackers Use Cursor and Claude AI to Automate Attacks in Aur0ra Ransomware Operations
Agents moved from stolen VPN access to domain management, and three of those victims later hit the leak site.
Sophos reports that GOLD OGRE used Cursor and Claude agents to run Aur0ra ransomware intrusions with little human involvement after operators provided access and objectives. The agents performed Active Directory discovery, credential attacks and lateral movement, then copied data to S3-compatible storage. Gambit Security and CloudSEK described overlapping files on an exposed directory, with only one shared SOCKS address. Sophos expects other ransomware crews to adopt similar agents.
Unconfirmed: Operator nationality is only suggested by Russian-language prompts and keyboard-layout artifacts.
- The group first relied almost entirely on Anthropic, then added xAI and Moonshot models.
- Operators told agents to avoid noisy domain-admin brute force and to prioritize backups.
- A VeeamTransport-named binary copied data to a bucket at 152.236.4.14.
- The only shared infrastructure noted with Gambit is SOCKS IP 45.59.113.63.
Impact: Domain management access and theft of files from shares and backups
- 1.Patch internet-facing devices and deploy phishing-resistant MFA.
- 2.Segment critical servers, isolate backups, and apply privileged access management.
- ATT&CK
- T1110.003 Password SprayingT1558.003 KerberoastingT1187 Forced AuthenticationT1567.002 Exfiltration to Cloud StorageT1046 Network Service Discovery
- Threat actors
- GOLD OGRE
- Malware
- Aur0raCobalt Strike
- Organizations
- SophosGambit SecurityCloudSEK
- AI models
- ComposerClaude 4.5-Sonnet
From the original article
2 min read at gbhackers.com
The GOLD OGRE cybercrime group is using AI coding agents, including Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude, to automate intrusions for Aur0ra ransomware (Aurora). Sophos researchers say the agents moved from credential access to domain administrator with little human involvement. Aur0ra ransomware AI attacks In May 2026, Sophos Counter Threat Unit (CTU) researchers reported an AI-assisted post-exploitation […]
By Kavichselvan · gbhackers.com
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