October 25, 2026
- SOCRadar mapped an exposed AI intrusion ecosystem used by INC and The Gentlemen ransomware affiliates. The framework, called Phantom, runs on OpenCode with OpenRouter-hosted commercial models under an "AI-executed, human-approved" structure: a human supplies a victim-specific prompt and reviews each step. An open directory at 45.227.254.43 logged 8,257 messages across 133 sessions. When models refused a request, the operator rewrote it as an authorised red-team assessment rather than switching models. Exploitation records name CVE-2024-57727 (SimpleHelp), CVE-2026-35616 (FortiClient EMS), and CVE-2026-41940 (cPanel/WHM) as actively exploited, with SonicWall, WordPress, LiteLLM and Drupal bugs staged or developed. In one case a single reused password unlocked VPN, servers, RMM, backup and security management platforms at once. (The Hacker News) · Threat Activity
in When the Red Team Is the Model: OpenAI's Agents Escaped Their Own Sandbox