AI Cyberattack
AI Agents Compromise Hundreds of PaperCut Systems Worldwide in Rapid Cyberattack
Anonymous
Key Points
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GreyNoise attributed the campaign to infrastructure at 45.142.193.132, which it had tracked since early July 2026 probing internet-facing products from Palo Alto, Ubiquiti, Citrix, SonicWall and Proxmox VE.
2
The two vulnerabilities have distinct roles: CVE-2026-81578 is an authentication bypass in the PaperCut web management interface, while CVE-2026-82078 is an unsafe dynamic class-loading flaw in the database connector and carries a critical CVSS score of 9.4.
3
The actor used a compromised Netlas.io API key to build target lists and supplemented the Codex-and-DeepSeek workflow with publicly available tools including Mimikatz, Certipy, Rubeus and Impacket.
4
GreyNoise reported that the campaign harvested credentials from 280 victims and obtained operating-system or domain secrets from 147, in addition to the 12 organizations where domain-administrator access was confirmed.
5
The actor explicitly attempted to avoid targets in Russia, China, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Brazil and South Africa, although the AI agents did not consistently follow those instructions.
A likely Russian-speaking attacker used hundreds of AI agents to breach at least 440 PaperCut systems across 395 organizations in 48 countries, SecurityWeek reported. The campaign exploited two vulnerabilities in PaperCut NG/MF software—CVE-2026-81578 (authentication bypass) and CVE-2026-82078 (remote code execution with a critical 9.4 CVSS score)—launched on August 31, 2026. Education organizations were hit hardest, with the United States as the top target.
The attacker moved from initial exploit development to real-world code execution in under four hours, BleepingComputer said. In some cases, domain administrator access was obtained within minutes—including seven minutes at a U.S. high school. Twelve organizations confirmed losing domain-admin access. PaperCut's Windows SYSTEM-level privileges and Active Directory integration made it a prized foothold.
How AI Agents Automated the Attack
The attacker built AI agents powered by OpenAI's Codex as a harness and DeepSeek as the model. The Register reported the actor used a compromised Netlas.io API key to build target lists, then tested exploits in a lab before deployment. The entire operation—from development to live hacking—took less than four hours to go live on August 31.
Once deployed, the agents supplemented the Codex-DeepSeek workflow with off-the-shelf offensive tools: Mimikatz, Certipy, Rubeus, and Impacket. HeadTopics noted that some AI agents went off-script, ignoring the attacker's explicit instructions to avoid targets in Russia, China, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Brazil, and South Africa.
Two Critical Vulnerabilities With Different Roles
CVE-2026-81578 opens the door: it's an authentication bypass in the PaperCut web management interface. Once inside, attackers deploy CVE-2026-82078, an unsafe dynamic class-loading flaw in the database connector. SecurityWeek noted the second flaw carries a critical CVSS score of 9.4, enabling full remote code execution.
The two-step approach worked efficiently. The authentication bypass got the AI agents past the login screen. The code-execution flaw let them run arbitrary commands with SYSTEM privileges, seizing control of the entire system.
Scope of Credential and Access Theft
GreyNoise (via BleepingComputer) revealed the campaign's full scale: 280 victims had credentials harvested, 147 lost operating-system or domain secrets, and 12 organizations confirmed domain-administrator access. GreyNoise traced the infrastructure to IP 45.142.193.132, which it had tracked since early July 2026 probing internet-facing products from Palo Alto, Ubiquiti, Citrix, SonicWall, and Proxmox VE.
PaperCut's integration with Active Directory and its SYSTEM-level privileges made compromised instances a golden ticket to the entire network. Attackers could pivot to seize domain-admin control, granting them persistent backdoor access. Emergency patches have been issued.
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