Aurora Ransomware Operators Use Cursor AI in Attacks Against 10 Targets
Aurora ransomware operators used Cursor AI running Claude Sonnet to plan and execute intrusions against dozens of organizations in nine countries.
CloudSEK and Gambit Security analyzed exposed infrastructure tied to the Russian-speaking Aurora (Aur0ra) group, revealing months of activity against more than 20 organizations across nine countries between April and July 2026, with 33 victims listed by Ransomware.Live. The operator used the Cursor agentic coding assistant to plan attacks in Russian, including an AD CS exploitation plan, and Gambit observed Cursor Agent (running Anthropic's Claude Sonnet) performing hands-on exploitation tasks such as Nmap scanning, NetExec enumeration, NTLM relay, and certificate attacks against 10 targets. Attacks begin with email bombing plus IT help desk vishing via Xray-core, followed by SMB/LDAP/WinRM/RDP lateral movement, log clearing, Defender disabling, and exfiltration; the Windows and Linux/ESXi encryptors are built from a single Zig codebase, with shadow copy deletion and VM-killing before encryption.
- Exposed toolkit and shell history showed Cursor used to plan attacks, excluding CIS ranges and domains.
- Gambit saw Cursor Agent running Claude Sonnet execute exploitation steps against 10 targets, April 8-May 21, 2026.
- Initial access via email bombing plus vishing as IT help desk, then remote access through Xray-core.
- Windows sap.exe and Linux encrypt.out are static Zig builds; Windows variant deletes shadow copies and disables System Restore.
- Affiliate ransom cuts ranged 54-79%; leaked key exposed a live negotiation and four crypto wallets.
- ATT&CK
- T1566.004 Spearphishing VoiceT1219 Remote Access SoftwareT1021 Remote ServicesT1562.001 Disable or Modify ToolsT1490 Inhibit System Recovery
- Threat actors
- Aurora
- Malware
- Aurora ransomware
- Organizations
- Ransomware.Live
- AI models
- Claude Sonnet
From the original article
6 min read at thehackernews.com
Threat actors associated with Aurora (aka Aur0ra) ransomware have been observed using SpaceX's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered coding assistant Cursor to break into target networks, according to findings from CloudSEK and Gambit Security .
By @TheHackersNews · thehackernews.com
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