Loading story…
Check Point Research reported that cybercriminals have started experimenting with ChatGPT to support malicious activity, using the tool to generate convincing phishing lures, draft fraudulent business communications, and assist with coding tasks tied to malware development. The report highlighted examples from underground forums showing threat actors discussing how large language models could lower the barrier for less-skilled operators by helping produce polished English text and functional code snippets.
Researchers said the observed use was still early-stage, but the activity showed how generative AI could accelerate common cybercrime workflows, including social engineering, scripting, and evasion-oriented development. The findings underscored a growing risk for defenders: AI tools are being adapted not only for productivity and research, but also to improve the speed, scale, and professionalism of criminal campaigns.
Mallory correlates global threat intelligence with your attack surface — know if you’re exposed before adversaries strike.
2 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
Push Security reported that attackers were using legitimate ChatGPT shared links to host fake OpenAI outage notices that redirected users to a bogus download site serving malware for Windows and macOS. The activity was described as part of the 'LLMShare' campaign and tied to broader abuse of AI platform sharing features for malware and ClickFix-style lures.
Check Point Research published findings describing early signs that cybercriminals were starting to use ChatGPT, marking a new development in how generative AI could be applied to malicious activity.
Vulnerabilities, threat actors, malware, products, organizations, and breaches Mallory has linked to this story.
3 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
bleepingcomputer.com
Open sourcenews.sophos.com
Open sourceresearch.checkpoint.com
Open sourceMap indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
Sophos X-Ops found that cybercrime forums including Exploit, XSS, Breach Forums, and Hackforums are discussing large language models, but adoption remains limited and cautious. Researchers observed multiple GPT-branded services marketed to criminals—such as **WormGPT**, **FraudGPT**, **Evil-GPT**, **DarkGPT**, **WolfGPT**, **BlackHatGPT**, **HackBot**, **PentesterGPT**, **PrivateGPT**, and **XXXGPT**—yet many forum users questioned whether the tools were effective, accused some offerings of being scams, or dismissed them as little more than jailbreak prompts wrapped in criminal branding. The activity that did appear was largely experimental rather than operational. Sophos reported that most observed uses focused on social engineering, routine coding help, jailbreak attempts, and trading compromised ChatGPT accounts, while examples of AI-generated malware or attack tooling were rare, generally unsophisticated, and often Python-based. Forum participants also raised concerns that using ChatGPT could expose their activity to monitoring, leak operational details, or strengthen defensive systems, prompting some to favor offline or self-hosted models instead of mainstream AI services.
Jun 29, 2026
Underground operators are increasingly packaging generative AI into **criminal AI-as-a-service** offerings that support phishing, fraud, impersonation, malware modification, translation, and post-breach data analysis. Reporting on the market describes branded tools such as **FraudGPT**, **GhostGPT**, and **WormGPT**, but says many are little more than wrappers around legitimate models, stolen accounts, or hijacked API keys rather than fully autonomous hacking platforms. Researchers also highlighted a parallel market for deepfake-enabled abuse, including voice cloning, face swaps, fake selfies, and virtual camera injection used for KYC bypass, synthetic identity fraud, and onboarding scams. Sophos separately identified a malware development lab using AI tools including **Cursor** and **Claude Opus** to speed ransomware-related coding, payload refinement, and evasion testing. The framework reportedly generated Python-driven Rust and Go malware modules, customized **Cobalt Strike** profiles, Telegram-based command channels, Cloudflare Worker intermediaries for command-and-control traffic, code-injection scripts targeting legitimate Windows applications, and AI-assisted Active Directory reconnaissance. Researchers said the operation tested nearly 80 modules against more than 70 evasion methods across Sophos, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft defenses, reinforcing that the immediate risk is not autonomous AI malware but faster, cheaper, and more scalable attacker workflows.
Jun 29, 2026
Cybercrime forums have sharply increased discussion and sales activity around malicious AI tools, with researchers reporting a **219% rise** in mentions of dark AI tools and tactics and a **52% increase** in references to jailbreaking mainstream platforms such as ChatGPT. These offerings include jailbroken versions of public generative AI services and customized tools built on open-source large language models, often sold as AI-as-a-Service to support phishing, business email compromise, deepfakes, fraud, vulnerability analysis, malware development, identity fraud, password attacks, credential stuffing, and DDoS operations. Reporting on the underground market says well-known brands such as **WormGPT** and **FraudGPT** are only the most visible examples of a broader ecosystem of rebranded, resold, and short-lived criminal services. Analysts say the main effect of these tools is not breakthrough offensive capability but the removal of safety guardrails, making it easier for lower-skilled actors to generate convincing scam content and some malicious code; the market has also shifted toward repurposed open-source uncensored models, while scams targeting criminals and a reported leak of nearly **19,000** WormGPT user accounts highlight instability and risk inside the ecosystem itself.
Jul 15, 2026