Hackers Use Autonomous AI Agents to Launch Mass Credential Theft Attacks in Under 6 Hours
Google Cloud reports attackers used autonomous AI agents to steal thousands of credentials including 23,800 secrets in a sub-six-hour campaign.
Google Cloud threat intelligence observed financially motivated attackers compromising cloud infrastructure and using AI coding agents guided by written playbook files to scan, harvest and rotate credentials within six hours. An exposed C2 dashboard for a framework called Recon organized and validated more than 23,800 stolen secrets, including API keys for cloud and AI services. Related activity includes UNC6780 publishing the trojanized tiktoken_mcp package on PyPI to target CI/CD tokens and the DUSTMAKER stealer hiding in .claude, .vscode and .cursor workspace directories.
- AI agents autonomously handled vulnerability scanning, credential collection, troubleshooting and IP rotation.
- Compromised trusted cloud infrastructure made attacker traffic appear legitimate and hindered detection.
- Recon C2 dashboard managed and validated over 23,800 stolen secrets in real time.
- UNC6780 distributed trojanized tiktoken_mcp on PyPI targeting developer and CI/CD tokens.
- DUSTMAKER abused hidden .claude/.vscode/.cursor directories to trigger scripts via workspace config.
- ATT&CK
- T1595.002 Vulnerability ScanningT1552.001 Credentials In FilesT1078.004 Cloud AccountsT1195.002 Compromise Software Supply Chain
- Vendors
- Google CloudPyPIGitHub
- Products
- DUSTMAKERRecontiktoken_mcp
- Threat actors
- UNC6780
- Malware
- DUSTMAKER
- Organizations
- Google Cloud
From the original article
4 min read at cybersecuritynews.com
Cybercriminals are using autonomous AI agents to turn compromised cloud systems into fast-moving credential theft platforms. In one recent case, attackers planned, built, and launched a large-scale campaign in less than six hours, stealing thousands of third-party credentials. The operation shows how attackers can combine AI coding tools, automated scanning, and cloud resources to work […]
By Tushar Subhra Dutta · cybersecuritynews.com
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