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Google says criminal hackers used AI to find a major software flaw
Unlocked: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hackers-attack-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hlA.vW7Y.pO_0G8yLYoca&smid=nytcore-android-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hacker..., https://archive.ph/I4Ui5 https://archive.ph/I4Ui5
https://apnews.com/article/google-ai-cybersecurity-exploitation-mythos-926aea7f7dc5e0e61adce3273c55c6d4 https://apnews.com/article/google-ai-cybersecurity-exploitat...
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/google-thwarts-effort-hacker-group-use-ai-mass-exploitation-event.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/google-thwarts-effort-hacker...
- skywhopper 5mo agoDrives me nuts that the NYT just uncritically cites Anthropic’s unverified claims of “thousands of zero-days” without a hint of skepticism.
- Predaxia 5mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- CrzyLngPwd 5mo agoPeople used LLMs to find flaws in Google software.
- amelius 5mo agoBut did they use Gemini?
- freedomben 5mo agoI don't know, but given how often Gemini refuses benign requests IME, I would suspect it's a complete non-starter for finding security holes.
- amelius 5mo agoBut of course you phrase them from the other viewpoint, e.g. "I want to make this code more secure, where should I start?"
- Andrex 5mo ago> the company added that it did not believe it was its own Gemini chatbot. -TFA
- adrianmonk 5mo agoIf you're talking about the incident described in the article, it says it was a flaw in "a popular open-source, web-based system administration tool". Google's blog (https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-vulnerability-exploitation-initial-access https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-...) says Google "worked with the impacted vendor to responsibly disclose this vulnerability", so in this incident, it's not Google software.
- simmerup 5mo agoCan google please use AI to find bugs then? Software is in such a state now, Gmail is full of bugs around sharing attachments to the position that I have to tell my dad to turn his phone off and on again in order to attach a document
- j2kun 5mo agohttps://secgemini.google/ https://secgemini.google/ https://projectzero.google/2024/10/from-naptime-to-big-sleep.html https://projectzero.google/2024/10/from-naptime-to-big-sleep... https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-codemender-an-ai-agent-for-code-security/ https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-codemender-an-ai-ag...
- JCTheDenthog 5mo agoThose are all for security vulnerabilities, OP is talking about bugs with functionality.
- andrepd 5mo agoIt's probably the AI overuse introducing many of those bugs in the first place...
- SecretDreams 5mo agoIf "bad guy AI" can find flaws, can "good guy AI" patch them faster when backed by trillion dollar companies?
- boothby 5mo agoDo your AI patches introduce fewer flaws than they repair?
- SecretDreams 5mo agoThat's a trillion dollar question.
- cyanydeez 5mo agoIf I sell weapons to both sides of a conflict, can I become rich?
- SecretDreams 5mo agoAsk anyone selling AI hardware recently!
- mindcrime 5mo agoNo. To become really rich you have to draw a 3rd player into the conflict, and then sell weapons to them as well.
- dwd 5mo agoOr just lend money to both parties to fund their war efforts and pay off war debts afterwards.
- BLKNSLVR 5mo agoYes. Please refer to any seller of weapons ever.
- j2kun 5mo agoThe bottleneck is probably validating and deploying the fix, which requires coordination.
- 4128-1228 5mo agoThe Google Threat Intelligence Group wants to increase its relevance and casually point out the it was not Mythos which found the exploit! Security "researchers" are overpaid buffoons who hype things for their own salaries and their companies. And the stenographers from the press dutifully copy everything. This is a despicable game to fool politicians into giving money and favorable AI legislation. Strangely enough these buffoons never offer their models to open source developers. It is always a select group of highly paid other buffoons that throws some very occasional results over the wall.
- s3p 5mo ago>But new A.I. models like Anthropic’s Mythos, which was announced last month, appear to be so good at finding such holes that Anthropic shared it only with a limited number of firms and government agencies in the United States and Britain. Immediate distrust of the article. GPT 5.5 is out with nearly the same capability. The author might be parroting company marketing, unable to discern that a lot of this is much less complex than it seems. For all we know this group could have had a model examine some obscure line of code thousands of times until it found something.
- reaperducer 5mo agoImmediate distrust of the article… The author might be parroting company marketing, unable to discern that a lot of this is much less complex than it seems. https://www.nytimes.com/by/dustin-volz https://www.nytimes.com/by/dustin-volz > I am based in The Times’s Washington bureau, and much of my focus is on the dealings of U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as their counterparts abroad, chiefly in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. > My remit spans nation-state hacking conflict, digital espionage, online influence operations, election meddling, government surveillance, malicious use of A.I. tools and other related topics. > Before joining The Times, I worked at The Wall Street Journal, where I spent eight years covering cyber conflict and intelligence. My recent work at The Journal included a series of articles revealing a major Chinese intrusion of America’s telecommunications networks that breached the F.B.I.’s wiretap systems and has been described as one of the worst U.S. counterintelligence failures in history. I have also worked at Reuters and National Journal, where I began my career in Washington chronicling congressional efforts to reform surveillance practices at the N.S.A. in the wake of the 2013 Edward Snowden disclosures. > My work has been internationally recognized, including by the White House Correspondents’ Association, the Gerald Loeb Awards, the Society of Publishers in Asia and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. What have you done lately?
- flextheruler 5mo agohttps://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-to-Authority https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-...
- sowbug 5mo agoSecurity will be a wedge to restrict the sophistication of open-weight and local LLMs, just as it's been used to demonize and restrict cypherpunk technologies.
- kshacker 5mo agoAs long as it is within the country, restriction works. How do you restrict the capability from a foreign entity, especially a hostile one?
- jazzyjackson 5mo agonetsplit, I guess. decide that the risk of an open network is too great and simply block all routing out of the country through the ISPs and consider the political power that goes along with a global satellite constellation under rule of a single, government-aligned corporation.
- bluGill 5mo agoThat works for very oppressive countries. However, more freedom-minded countries are not going to law for that.
- notsound 5mo ago"simply block all routing out of the country" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. For government networks, sure. For civilian networks? It's a bit like stopping pirates from ripping video; how do you deal with an attacker that ultimately can gain some form of access? Even in North Korea external media can be smuggled in.
- 2ndorderthought 5mo agoIf they tried to lock down local models more people would use them. They would also have to take down a few us companies in the process who would go down fighting for certain.
- somewhatgoated 5mo ago
- ppqqrr 5mo ago...says yet another company hell bent on integrating it into every facet of our lives. This reads like a celebration, if you ask me.
- atrocities 5mo agoCan we link to the actual google article, instead of these editorialized articles about the article? https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-vulnerability-exploitation-initial-access https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-...
- gman2093 5mo agoBlack hat hacking seems to be a well-fit use case for these LLMs. Attackers only need to be right once, so the sometimes-wrongness of the attacks might be trivial. This probably devalues stashes of zero-day exploits for those that have been witholding them.
- BLKNSLVR 5mo agoI wonder if that means we're going to see an increase in the attempted 'leveraging' of hoarded zero days lest they get publicised and patched prior to being profitable.
- t-writescode 5mo agoThis stance doesn't make sense. They have the same access that the rest of the public does; and, any Red Team member is going to be doing the exact same thing.
- fwbruno 5mo agoI do not personally hoard these exploits. My personal experience has been that responsible disclosure already has little to no economic incentive. I have gone through the pain of rigorously documenting and disclosing zero-day exploits through the official channel, and the vendor categorized it as Won't Fix, Intended Behavior. I feel that AI discovery devalues these disclosures even more because these bugs can now be discovered independently before anyone can act on them.
- 0xWTF 5mo agoWait until the bio version of this shows up.
- esseph 5mo ago8 days ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/ai-chatbots-biological-weapons.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/us/ai-chatbots-biological...
- wnc3141 5mo agoBut in exchange we get to also waste vast energy and carbon while depleting job prospects for just about any college grad.
- andrepd 5mo agoIt's not all bad though. We also managed to turn the Information Superhighway of the 1990s into the Slop Wasteland of the 2020s.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- bouncycastle 5mo agoMeanwhile, I cannot ask ChatGTP how to pick my own lock. Even though this information is available in a book in the library.
- dryarzeg 5mo agoThen go ask some ChineseGPT about this, I guess, as these models seem to be much less restricted on such topics (you could even get some explosives recipes, though not all of them are real and safe) /j
- esseph 5mo agoAlso available to Fed Gov entities, surely. For me, not thee
- userbinator 5mo ago...or on YouTube.
- xnx 5mo agoDupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096712
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- skeledrew 5mo agoWild that they think restricting access to models will help much. Access to Chinese models will definitely not be restricted and have enough capability to find exploits as well.
- huflungdung 5mo ago[dead]
- QuantumNoodle 5mo agoOkay, when fuzzing techniques came out there was a big surge in discovered and exploited bugs. AI is more general and I expect there be a similar surge. However fuzzing is cheap but compute and techniques can be "owned." The economics of AI is unless you pay for it, it is difficult to self host (expensive hardware, open source models are catching up). State actors + hackers will have more resources to make better offense. What worse, in my experience AI produced code is blind to overall system behavior. So I fear the exploits will be either low hanging/trivial to exploit errors or bigger system level bugs.
- Charles389no 5mo ago[flagged]
- crazygringo 5mo ago> “We have high confidence that the actor likely leveraged an A.I. model to support the discovery and weaponization of this vulnerability,” the report said. I wonder what gives them that "high confidence", as opposed to this being just a traditional zero-day? I'm not being snarky or critical, I'm genuinely wondering what about an attack could possibly indicate it was discovered with LLM assistance? Like, unless the attackers' computers have been seized and they've been able to recover the actual LLM transcript history? But nothing in the article indicates that the hackers have been caught, just that a patch was developed.
- eatsyourtacos 5mo agoMaybe after they realized how they were vulnerable they asked an LLM to find the exploit through a similar means to try and replicate it. Still doesn't prove it but maybe gives them confidence this weird thing can only really be found that way etc.
- nullc 5mo agoPresumably the attacker used Google's own LLM and they searched the history of all user chats to find the transcript. I say this only slightly in jest, as that's about the only thing I can think of which would legitimately give them 'high confidence'.
- djeastm 5mo agoIn the article (AP one, at least) Google explicitly said it does not believe it was Gemini or Mythos.
- _karie_ 5mo ago[dead]
- nsoonhui 5mo agoThere was a discussion a few days ago on White House considers vetting AI models prior to release (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013608 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013608).
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- zx8080 5mo agoIt's the narrative "For your own security in the internet (and children's safety), show us your ID now, please". Tired of this trend.
- srcreigh 5mo ago> Google said in research published Monday What research? Where is it published?
- nomilk 5mo ago@dang would be great if the hn link was the 'unlocked' version i.e. instead of https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hackers-attack-ai.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hacker... this instead https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hackers-attack-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hlA.vW7Y.pO_0G8yLYoca https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/google-hacker... (can read the article immediately; slightly less fuss)
- wasabi991011 5mo agoJust fyi @username does not send any notifications on hackernews, not even to the mods. To contact the HN mods, you need to send them an email.
- randyrand 5mo agoAt least, thats what we're told ;)
- chrononaut 5mo agoand I imagine out of anyone on HN, dang probably frequently searches for instances of dang. Sorry dang.
- latexr 5mo agoI can confirm the moderators (dang and tomhow) are very responsive by email.
- justsomedev2 5mo agoWhat a surprise hackers used AI . I mean why wouldnt they? Every programmer uses it..
- ChrisArchitect 5mo agoSource: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-vulnerability-exploitation-initial-access https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/ai-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096712) Why collect all the news dupes but not the source up top OP? Because the source was already submitted?
- markboo 5mo agoIn past decades the "firewall" of software is that advanced security and coding knowledge is not very easy to access by anyone, only a few smartest people in the big name companies and top orgs. But nowadays, knowledge is accessible to everyone if you use top LLM, which swipe the difference. I would say that future public software is unsafe anymore. maybe the concept of public software (like SaaS or other) will be dead, software is only private instead of public
- kuboble 5mo agoGiven how everywhere software is now being written by the LLMs, how is that a top headline news that some (albeit malicious) software is being written with LLM? The robbers used a CAR in the robbery. The blackmailer used a TYPEWRITER to write blackmailing letter.
- plexescor 5mo agoBut which AI exactly, theres this new claude Mythos about wihch everone is talking, is it legit or a fluff
- koiueo 5mo agoHaven't read the article, but let me guess: "That's why for your safety we need a scan of your ID and your biometrics to let you use our best models"
- andai 5mo agoMy Android phone takes a photo of my face every time I unlock the device. I don't have access to those images, but someone already has photos of my eyeballs! I'm not sure why or how to turn it off, does anyone know? (Also, insert weary photo of Kaczynski here.)
- jeroenhd 5mo agoGo to security settings and disable face unlock. If you want to be extra safe against Google, go to the advanced security settings, find the "trust agents", and disable the ability for Google Play Services to unlock your phone. That'll also kill any other unlock mechanisms you may have forgotten about tied to Google's services. If unlock features remain after that, it's a manufacturer feature that's been set up. In that case you'll have to look for a guide for your specific brand and model. Your phone can't turn this on by itself, if it's doing face recognition that means you set it up at some point.
- throwawayffffas 5mo agoFor the extra paranoid, tape over the camera is the way to go.
- Jean-Papoulos 5mo agoIf this is true, I hope AI exploit-finding will force the industry to harden itself against supply-chain vulnerabilities.
- lynx97 5mo agoI stopped reading after "Google says". They have destroyed whatever trust I might have had in them years ago.
- viktorcode 5mo agoI expect that only to escalate with time, especially when there'll be more agent-written code deployed.
- BatteryMountain 5mo agoTo make an omelette, some eggs need to break, right? These companies released AI to the public and thought it will be all sunshine and roses.. there are legit bad actors in the world that hates society and people and they will use AI for expand on that, is that not clear? We need controls on AI similar to any other restricted materials (like nuclear stuff).
- andai 5mo agoLocal models are getting good scary fast. Hardware is improving too. How long until I can ask a local model to help me do Nontrivial Bad Things? I don't see how you can regulate that though. Just making it illegal to release small models? Or to use unauthorized ones? (I'm kind of not sure the kind of people who want to do bad things are going to be discouraged by such a law though.)
- Spacemolte 5mo agoPhasing like this immediately makes me wonder what google is lobbying for..
- netdevphoenix 5mo agoI wonder what is the goal here? If Google Search was used to find a major software flaw would this be reported in this way? Between Mythos, OpenAI's Mythos equivalent, it's not clear if there is some interest to keep the "AI is powerful" trend going or they are trying to indirectly bring attention to the technical capabilities of LLMs in cybersecurity (as a potentially untapped source of revenue).
- bell-cot 5mo agoThey're proclaiming that AI is the Latest Big Thing in the perpetual computer security arms race. So unless you want to be stuck fighting in propeller-driven planes when every real air force has jets, you better start spending big on AI. Preferably Google's AI, of course.
- surajrmal 5mo agoI can assure you that Google is not coordinated enough to pull off this sort of thing. Security researchers only care about security research. There might be some level of oversight on what's published, but the core security teams are not actively seeking a way to promote a particular narrative.
- throwawayffffas 5mo agoNext headline: Google will not be releasing their next AI model to the public but only "trusted" partners, because it's too dangerous.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- rullelito 5mo ago"And the only prescription..'
- stikit 5mo agoHackers use AI to find vulnerabilities to exploit. What’s the news here?
- pbrumm 5mo agoSo google is accusing an AI company that has a customer who is paying them money to develop software that caused damages. Sounds like the AI company could be liable? If I am paid by someone to create an exploit that caused damages wouldn't I be liable? Or could I avoid it by making my client sign a terms of service agreement to not use it that way? Who created the model and who helped with GPU power to run the model to create the export and should they be doing more.
- mikewarot 5mo agoThis is your reminder that the security model underlying everything these days is crap. Ambient authority was fine for stand alone PCs without persistent internal storage. It's just stupid to use it in the 21st century.
- rudolph9 5mo agoDo they have high confidence the actor used a keyboard? Used the bathroom at some point during the attack? Has a mother? Idk, this doesn’t strike me as news. Google just missed a vulnerability.
- vasco 5mo agoYeah anyone doing any sort of development is using AI, including for exploits. Means nothing.
- luisb_24 5mo ago[flagged]
- giancarlostoro 5mo agoThis will only keep happening, I know some people are skeptical as to what level of function the AI was used, whether it was to write code, or to do the hack, it really doesn't matter, the fact that anyone can use AI to do this, hell people nuke their prod systems with AI, should have every company worth its salt investing in security audits, code scanning and anything they can to find exploits before some 14 year old somehow breaks into your system with AI and wreaks chaos over your infrastructure. Are you one bad headline away from a major hack? Or worse, one hack away from your company going under? It's all a ticking time bomb. Someone else on HN pointed out that distros like Debian might be too slow as people find live exploits in the kernel, it might not be worth keeping something like that, on the other hand Ubuntu supports live kernel upgrading at the enterprise level, so maybe Ubuntu Server might be Debian's indirect saving grace. Article says that it was largely a theory until now. That's not entirely true, we know that hackers used Claude to hack the Mexican government, got the PII of every citizen basically. I would not be surprised if there's more hacks that are undetected. The hackers don't need to declare their use of AI, its irrelevant.