AI Agents Got Root on Linux via 948 Kernel Flaws in OpenAI Research

Summary

OpenAI says an autonomous pipeline built on an unreleased cyber model produced working root exploits for 948 unique Linux kernel vulnerabilities in one scan that cost $1.2 million in API credits. The agents confirmed 1,724 of 2,308 flagged bugs and produced 1,169 working local privilege escalation (LPE) exploits, with exploits tested against KASLR, SMEP and SMAP enabled. OpenAI says the 948 figure counts the separate patches created for those bugs, and that its researchers checked exploits and fixes before reporting to kernel maintainers.

Mitigation

OpenAI says it has submitted hundreds of reports and patches for critical flaws to kernel maintainers and will send fixes for the remaining bugs in stages through its Patch the Planet initiative. It advises that a low-privileged account on an operating system not up to date on its latest patches should be considered functionally equivalent to root access for a well-resourced threat actor, and points to layered defenses including sandboxing and isolation technologies such as Firecracker and gVisor.

Topics

• AI agents

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