Google Disrupts AI-Built Zero-Day Exploit Targeting 2FA in Web Admin Tool

Google Threat Intelligence Group said it disrupted what it believes is the first observed cybercriminal campaign to use AI to develop a working zero-day exploit, preventing a likely mass-exploitation event against an unnamed open-source web administration tool. The flaw was a semantic logic issue in a Python script that allowed two-factor authentication bypass with valid credentials, and Google said the exploit code showed strong signs of LLM assistance, including heavily annotated Python, educational docstrings, textbook formatting, and even a hallucinated CVSS score. Google notified the vendor before the exploit was deployed at scale, and researchers assessed with high confidence that the code was generated with meaningful help from an AI model other than Gemini.

Google said the case reflects a broader shift as threat actors industrialize generative AI across the attack lifecycle, from vulnerability research and exploit validation to malware development, obfuscation, reconnaissance, and social engineering. The company linked this trend to activity from China-, North Korea-, and Russia-aligned operators, and highlighted examples including PROMPTSPY, an Android backdoor that used the Gemini API to interpret device interfaces and automate clicks and swipes, as well as supply-chain compromises tied to repositories associated with Trivy, Checkmarx, LiteLLM, and BerriAI. Google said it has disabled malicious Gemini-linked assets and urged organizations to harden CI/CD pipelines, protect tokens, and scrutinize AI-related dependencies and abuse infrastructure.