Hacker Runs Hermes AI Agent Unattended for Post-Exploitation at Thai Finance Ministry

A hacker installed Hermes, an open-source AI assistant, on a rented server and disabled its permission-checking feature (using the YOLO mode, a documented setting) to autonomously attack Thailand's Ministry of Finance. The AI agent performed repetitive reconnaissance tasks like scanning for vulnerabilities, searching for elevated permissions, and crawling file systems containing personnel records, while a human operator handled targeting decisions and initial network access, demonstrating how AI can automate post-exploitation attacks when safeguards are intentionally turned off.