Censys Says It Found More Than 800 Artex Systems Exposed Online Without Passwords
Summary
Censys says it found more than 800 Artex deployments reachable online without a password. Artex is an open source autonomous penetration testing tool tied to attacks on South Korean finance firms and on ConnectWise. Researcher Silas Cutler said not every instance is run maliciously, and Artex says it will go closed-source for paid customers.
Key Points
- Microsoft says Artex's AI agents conduct attacks from reconnaissance through data exfiltration with little human interaction.
- CrowdStrike attributes the September Korean finance attacks to a Chinese-speaking hacker who left an exposed open directory.
- Dozens of copies of Artex code remain on code-sharing sites and are still usable in active attacks.