Free AI model powers self-spreading worm in enterprise test network
There's a lot of fear surrounding the bug-finding capabilities of super-advanced AI models like Anthropic's Mythos and OpenAI's GPT 5.5-Cyber. But attackers are already using free, publicly available LLMs to hijack networks and worm through software supply chains at a much lower cost – to them at least.
The latest example comes from University of Toronto researchers, who used an unnamed, publicly available open-weight model released in 2025 to develop a computer worm that they claim spread through an enterprise test network.
The self-propagating code adapts on the fly to identify known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations on target systems, then generates and executes attacks to move laterally through the network and compromise additional machines.
And it’s all built on a small, free model that runs on a single GPU.
“People need to understand that it’s not just the biggest and most powerful AI models that pose security concerns – a...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to theregister.com. To see the full text click HERE
