Security researchers have discovered that hundreds of copies of a Chinese-made AI hacking tool have been published on the internet for anyone to access. This could allow outsiders to launch cyberattacks against unsuspecting targets.
The hacking software, called Artex, is an open-source autonomous penetration testing tool, or software that automatically probes computer systems for weaknesses, and has been linked to several cyberattacks since its release in July. As open source software, anyone can download it for free and run it on their own servers, making it a popular tool for discovering security vulnerabilities for those who don’t have access to cutting-edge cybersecurity AI models from Anthropic or OpenAI. Microsoft previously described Artex as a system of AI agents that can carry out cyberattacks “from reconnaissance to data exfiltration, with little to no human intervention.”
Censys, a cybersecurity company that scans the internet for exposed and vulnerable systems, said in a blog post that it had identified more than 800 separate deployments of Artex that can be accessed from the web without requiring a password to log in.
Silas Cutler, principal security researcher at Censys, who wrote the blog post, said that not all instances of Artex are being operated with malicious intent, and many are used for authorized testers. But the software doesn’t require Internet access, so it’s unclear why hundreds of these Artex systems are exposed on the Web.
The findings highlight that even powerful hacking tools can be mistakenly configured to be accessible to anyone, increasing the likelihood that someone will find and exploit them. Publicly accessible systems also expose attack tools such as implants (hidden malicious software) that can be used to compromise a victim’s network and maintain persistent access.
Security companies have linked the use of Artex to several large-scale cyberattacks, including one against South Korea’s financial industry in September. Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike believes the attack was carried out by Chinese-speaking hackers who used an Artex instance in the attack, in part because the hackers left behind an “open directory” hosting the system. Censys said its data shows the Artex instance in question has been publicly available for months and appears to contain further attack data that extends “far beyond Korean banks,” including payment and gaming companies.
Artex was also used in an attack on IT support giant ConnectWise in early October, allowing China-linked hackers to spy on thousands of organizations whose data and files were hosted in Microsoft’s cloud. Microsoft, which is aware of the attack, said in a blog post that the hackers used Artex to infiltrate customers’ cloud environments and steal data at such a speed that defenders had “little time to detect and respond.”
Many of the attacks related to Artex exploited simple vulnerabilities, such as weak passwords, guessing known passwords, and lack of multi-factor authentication.
This finding shows that simple vulnerabilities involving misconfigurations can put both attackers and their targets at risk.
Artex then announced that it would move to closed source, effectively restricting future releases for paying customers. Dozens of copies of Artex’s code still exist on code-sharing sites and may still be used in attacks.
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