Cisco Talos

Chinese Cybercriminals Deploy AI Agents to Automate Exploitation of Exposed Windows and Linux Servers

A Chinese cybercriminal group tracked as UAT-10147 is actively using AI agents to automate reconnaissance, exploitation, and post-exploitation against internet-facing Windows and Linux servers. Cisco Talos identified the campaign after discovering approximately 170,000 URLs in the attackers' infrastructure, with targets spanning government, education, media, technology, and gaming organizations across multiple countries including Brazil. The group divides targets into smaller batches to accelerate scanning and exploitation of known vulnerabilities in applications such as Zimbra, AjaxPro, Nacos, and Telerik. AI agents go beyond simple code generation by producing exploitation guides, refining failed attacks, verifying payload success, and automating persistence and post-exploitation steps. In one observed case, the agents created scripts capable of validating permissions, exploiting ViewState deserialization, installing implants, and deploying web shells on compromised IIS servers. Cisco Talos assesses the operation as a shift toward semi-autonomous offensive orchestration rather than basic AI-assisted scripting.