Aur0ra ransomware
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Ransomware gang reportedly used AI agents to move through victim networks
According to Sophos, the group it tracks as GOLD OGRE, behind Aur0ra ransomware, used AI agents to move through victim networks, collect credentials and escalate to domain administrator access. Sophos recovered artefacts from the Cursor AI coding assistant in late August showing attackers supplying the agents with VPN logins, proxy access, targets and objectives.
Attackers use open-source ARTEX AI agent to automate Active Directory attacks
ARTEX, an open-source multi-agent penetration testing and command-and-control platform written in Go, is being abused to automate Active Directory attacks, including Kerberoasting, DCSync and lateral movement. Google's Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant have seen it used since late August 2026 against organisations in several sectors, and Microsoft has linked it to a China-linked group targeting Microsoft 365 tenants. Google says it trades stealth for speed, so defenders can still detect it through its noisy logs and artefacts.
GOLD OGRE uses Cursor and Claude AI agents to automate Aur0ra ransomware attacks
The GOLD OGRE group is using AI coding agents, including Cursor and Anthropic's Claude, to automate intrusions that lead to Aur0ra ransomware deployment. Sophos Counter Threat Unit researchers, reporting in May 2026, said the agents progressed from credential access to domain administrator with minimal human involvement.
Aur0ra ransomware group uses Cursor AI agents to reach domain admin and steal data
The Aur0ra ransomware group, tracked as GOLD OGRE, used Cursor AI agents, including its Composer model and models from Anthropic, xAI and Moonshot, to move from stolen credentials to domain admin access in Active Directory environments. The agents mapped networks, tried password spraying, Kerberoasting and NTLM relay, and staged data for exfiltration to S3-compatible storage before ransomware deployment. Sophos says the group also used AI to test evasion of EDR products, and it expects other ransomware groups to adopt similar agents.