Operation Ghost-Campus

AntiFox AI Pentesting Platform Linked to Attacks That Accessed AWS Production Secrets

Cybersecurity researchers at Arctic Wolf Labs have detailed how the open-source AI-driven penetration testing tool AntiFox was abused in real-world intrusions to compromise internet-facing web services and steal credentials from Amazon Web Services environments. Attackers leveraged compromised IIS servers to deploy ASPX web shells, enumerate configurations, extract database strings, and move laterally into cloud infrastructure. In multiple cases the activity progressed from credential validation to successful enumeration of dozens of AWS services and direct retrieval of production secrets via Secrets Manager. The disclosure highlights a growing trend of threat actors weaponizing autonomous agentic frameworks such as AntiFox and ARTEX to automate reconnaissance, exploitation, and post-exploitation at machine speed. Similar campaigns, including Operation Ghost-Campus attributed to Chinese actors, demonstrate how these tools enable rapid theft of API keys and large-scale automated fraud. Researchers note that roughly 45 open-source agentic attack frameworks now exist, lowering the barrier for less-skilled adversaries while increasing attack scale and persistence.