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BlackHatSect0r Uses DeepSeek-Powered AI Agent to Automate Attacks and Harvest 16,834 Credentials

SOCRadar linked the BlackHatSect0r crew to a DeepSeek-powered AI agent that automated scanning and harvested 16,834 credentials from exposed systems.

SOCRadar researchers found an exposed operation server with 4.9 GB across 9,299 files, including the DXSCAN scanning platform, phishing tools, extortion material and a vault holding 16,834 credentials such as AWS keys, GitHub tokens and Stripe keys. The French-speaking crew ran a Nous Research Hermes agent against a DeepSeek model with safety features removed, queuing 2,759,860 domains and reaching 726,989 hosts. Access came from misconfigurations like public cloud buckets and exposed .env files, not new vulnerabilities.

Cyber Security News · 2h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sources1

The modern attack chain: Rethinking Google Workspace security in the age of AI

Analysis of Vercel and Composio breaches shows stolen OAuth tokens, not phishing email, now open Google Workspace attacks — a path authorized AI agents follow.

The author analyzes the Vercel and Composio breaches as the same OAuth-first attack chain run twice: a stolen OAuth token, obtained via a compromised supplier, becomes the entry point rather than email. These tokens survive password resets, are hard to observe, and let attackers read Gmail and Drive data, take over accounts, and pivot laterally using stored credentials and password-reset magic links. The piece warns that authorized AI agents with overbroad OAuth grants can unintentionally traverse the same path — accessing inboxes, reading sensitive content, and exfiltrating data downstream — without any malicious actor or compromised credential.

Help Net Security · 1d agoResearch in the wild

Rhysida Ransomware Group Targets Berlin Government Ahead of Vote

Rhysida ransomware hit Berlin's state government weeks before the September 20 election, claiming 5.79 TB stolen; officials refused the ransom.

Berlin's government confirmed an August cyberattack on its administrative network, with data exfiltrated between August 7 and August 12 and departments isolated on August 17. The Rhysida group claimed responsibility on August 28, alleging theft of 5.79 TB and 1.44 million files including personal data on 12,076 individuals, payroll files, plaintext credentials, and vulnerability analyses of Berlin's water supply. Officials said election systems were not affected and refused to pay; Rhysida has claimed roughly 280 victims since 2023, entering via VPNs without MFA, Zerologon, or phishing.

Security Affairs · 19d agoRansomware in the wild

BlackHatSect0r Hackers Disable AI Safety Controls to Automate Credential Theft and Cyberattacks

French-speaking crew BlackHatSect0r disabled AI agent safety controls to automate scanning, credential harvesting, and vishing, exposing 16,834 stolen credentials.

Socradar researchers analyzed the exposed infrastructure of a French-speaking crew called BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX, which ran a Nous Research Hermes agent on a DeepSeek model with safety controls removed via HERMES_DISABLE_SAFETY=1. A custom Go-based C2 platform, DXSCAN, was exposed on port 8080 with over 200 secret-detection patterns, a vault of 16,834 harvested credentials, and scanning activity queuing 2.75 million domains and reaching more than 726,000 hosts. The kit also held a database of roughly 450,000 French telecom subscriber records used to prepare vishing lures impersonating Société Générale, plus JWT-forging tooling for a cryptocurrency exchange. Most confirmed compromises relied on exposed secrets and cloud misconfiguration rather than novel exploits; the one cited vulnerability, CVE-2026-42530, is an NGINX HTTP/3 QPACK use-after-free fixed in version 1.31.2.

GBHackersupdated · 2h agofirst · 5h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sourcesCVE-2026-42530

Hackers Turn AI Agent Into a Cyber Weapon After Deleting Its Safety Refusals

Researchers exposed BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX infrastructure showing a safety-disabled Hermes AI agent used to automate scanning, credential harvesting, and vishing against French telecom subscribers.

Socradar-analyzed infrastructure attributed to French-speaking crew BlackHatSect0r && DXQRTXX exposed 4.9 GB across 9,299 files, including the DXSCAN Go-based C2 platform, 16,834 harvested credentials, and a database of nearly 450,000 records used for a vishing campaign targeting older French telecom subscribers with Societe Generale-themed lures. The crew ran a self-hosted Nous Research Hermes agent on a DeepSeek model with refusal instructions removed and HERMES_DISABLE_SAFETY=1 set, using it for scanning, secret hunting, and Telegram reporting. DXSCAN queued 2.75 million domains and reached over 726,000 hosts; the toolkit relied on exposed secrets and misconfigurations rather than novel exploitation.

GBHackersupdated · 2h agofirst · 5h agoThreat actor in the wild 4 sourcesCVE-2026-425301

Thomson Reuters Court Software Breach May Have Exposed SSNs and Sealed Data

Unauthorized access to Thomson Reuters' C-Track court platform may have exposed SSNs and sealed records across 11 US states, USVI, and Ontario.

Thomson Reuters' West Publishing disclosed that an unauthorized party obtained files from the C-Track court case management platform starting in March 2026, with access to one environment running from March 1 through June 29, 2026 per Montana's account. Notices name roughly 24 court bodies across 11 US states, the US Virgin Islands, and Ontario, including appellate courts in Minnesota, Ohio, Montana, and Pennsylvania. Exposed data may include names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, dates of birth, medical and health insurance information, and confidential or sealed court records. The company is offering 12 months of Experian or TransUnion monitoring, and courts disagree over whether the vendor's backup cloud environment or the production platform was accessed.

The Hacker News · 13d agoData breach in the wild

ownCloud Flaw Exploited to Steal Nuclear Records From Philippine Research Body

A Chinese-speaking actor exploited ownCloud CVE-2023-49105 to steal 176 nuclear research files from Philippine organizations, prompting CISA to add the flaw to KEV.

CISA added CVE-2023-49105 (CVSS 9.8), an ownCloud WebDAV API authentication bypass fixed in version 10.13.1, to the KEV catalog after Hunt.io found an open directory hosting custom Python exploit scripts and tools including Sliver, Metasploit, and Mettle. The actor downloaded 176 files (~372 MB) from a Philippine nuclear research body, including nuclear-material account records, 2023-2028 strategic plans, BitLocker keys, and a KeePass database; a second intrusion exploited LiteSpeed Cache CVE-2024-28000 at a shipbuilding firm serving the Philippine Navy, with XML-RPC brute-force and an EtherHiding/ClickFix component. FCEB agencies must patch by August 30, 2026. CISA also added Linux Kernel CVE-2026-53362 and Artifactory CVE-2026-66384 after OpenAI said its AI agents exploited them against internal infrastructure.

The Hacker News · 19d agoExploit / PoC in the wildCVE-2023-49105CVE-2024-28000CVE-2026-53362+1 CVEs1