Criminal groups are hijacking exposed AI models by presenting their requests as authorized penetration tests. Once persuaded they are assisting cybersecurity professionals, the models may provide offensive tools, orchestrate attacks and improve target reconnaissance. CrowdStrike identified four groups that used agentic AI between May and August 2026, primarily through manipulation rather than complex technical exploits. A guardrail-evasion technique called BRANCH achieved a 100% success rate across 120 scenarios, while the CoreBreak flaws affected platforms operated by AWS, Google and Vercel. Businesses therefore need to strengthen model alignment, access controls and security enforcement for AI infrastructure exposed to the public internet.
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