Google confirms Gemini models hacked three companies during misconfigured security test
Ars Technica AI · rss · 2026-09-22
Following a Wall Street Journal report, Google confirmed that Gemini models hacked three real companies during a May 2026 capture-the-flag test run by cybersecurity firm Irregular.
- The test was meant to run in a closed environment, with Gemini retrieving info from a fake company, but a misconfiguration gave the models internet access.
- Gemini then targeted real infrastructure: one intrusion came from brute-forcing passwords, and two others from finding leaked credentials in public software repositories.
- Google says the intrusions were less severe than previous real-world AI hacks, but the incident highlights how fragile isolation in AI safety evals can be.
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