Hackers weaponise AI pentesting tool to steal AWS credentials

AntiFox tool abused for AWS theft

Cybercriminals are using AntiFox, an open source AI-powered penetration testing platform, to steal login credentials and access Amazon Web Services environments, according to security researchers Arctic Wolf.

What is AntiFox?

AntiFox is an AI-powered open source penetration testing platform built by a Chinese developer. Penetration testing identifies weaknesses in IT infrastructure, but tools like AntiFox are often abused in cyberattacks.

Attackers hosted instances on Alibaba Cloud

Unnamed threat actors hosted their own instances of AntiFox on Alibaba Cloud infrastructure and used its automated capabilities to analyze compromised systems, search for passwords, and access cloud resources.

First attack vector: compromised web servers

Arctic Wolf observed threat actors first compromising internet-facing Microsoft IIS web servers, though they could not determine exactly how. Attackers then installed web shells to execute malicious server commands remotely.

Searching for credentials in application files

From compromised servers, attackers went through application files and configuration settings looking for database login credentials and other valuable secrets. Researchers also saw attempts to use these credentials to connect to internal production databases.

Second attack vector: stolen AWS credentials

In other cases, attackers used valid AWS credentials obtained elsewhere to sift through cloud environments and uncover accounts, permissions, databases, storage servers, and other important resources.

Amazon's response and recommendations

Amazon told BleepingComputer that AWS services were not compromised and operated as designed. The company urged customers to follow security best practices including granting least-privilege permissions and enabling Amazon GuardDuty.

“AWS services were not compromised and operated as designed.”

AntiFox forked from ARTEX framework

AntiFox was built as a fork of ARTEX zero point one point one, another Chinese-developed AI-powered penetration testing framework. Security researchers Censys identified one thousand four hundred sixty-five hosts running exposed ARTEX consoles.

Organisations urged to monitor and rotate secrets

Arctic Wolf recommends organisations monitor web servers for suspicious activity, investigate unusual AWS activity, terminate unfamiliar web shells, and rotate all exposed passwords, API keys, and cloud credentials without delay.