Loud, Fast, and Everywhere: Anatomy of a Real AI-Driven Cloud Attack

Wiz CIRT investigated a real-world AI-driven cloud attack where an autonomous AI agent conducted end-to-end intrusion operations, including initial access, credential harvesting, lateral movement, and data exfiltration across multi-cloud environments. The attacker used machine-speed automation, simultaneous cross-platform operations, and self-debugging capabilities to rapidly pivot through cloud, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and identity systems. The attack leveraged a Java RCE vulnerability in an exposed Kafka UI for initial access and used AI-generated scripts with descriptive comments and task identifiers like 'pentest', 'recon', and numeric IDs to maintain persistence and exfiltrate data.

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