Hackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps
Recorded: Sept. 11, 2026, 9 p.m.
| Original | Summarized |
Hackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps News Featured AdaptHealth confirms 4.1 million people exposed in July cyberattack Microsoft September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 966 flaws, 2 zero-days Over 36,000 exposed Plex servers vulnerable to recent flaws New Microsoft Defender 'ShieldCrash' zero-day grants SYSTEM access Hackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps Florida confirms DMV database breached via stolen police account Passkey-themed phishing attacks lead to Microsoft 365 data theft Artifactory flaws chained in attacks deploying backdoor malware Tutorials Latest How to access the Dark Web using the Tor Browser How to enable Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection in Windows 11 How to use the Windows Registry Editor How to backup and restore the Windows Registry How to start Windows in Safe Mode How to remove a Trojan, Virus, Worm, or other Malware How to show hidden files in Windows 7 How to see hidden files in Windows Webinars Latest Qualys BrowserCheck STOPDecrypter AuroraDecrypter FilesLockerDecrypter AdwCleaner ComboFix RKill Junkware Removal Tool Deals Categories eLearning IT Certification Courses Gear + Gadgets Security VPNs Popular Best VPNs How to change IP address Access the dark web safely Best VPN for YouTube Forums Virus Removal Guides HomeNewsSecurityHackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps Hackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps By Bill Toulas September 11, 2026 Anthropic says multiple threat groups, including the financially motivated and state-sponsored espionage groups linked to Russia and China, tried to abuse its Claude AI model for malicious purposes. Build your security blueprint for AI-powered attacks Join Mikko Hyppönen and security leaders from the NFL, CHANEL, and Atlassian for a two-hour digital summit on what AI-speed attacks change, what defenders should stop doing, and how to validate, decide, fix, and re-validate at machine speed. Related Articles: Abuse Bill Toulas Previous Article Post a Comment Community Rules You need to login in order to post a comment Not a member yet? Register Now You may also like: Upcoming Webinar Popular Stories Microsoft September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 966 flaws, 2 zero-days September Windows Server updates break Remote Desktop Services Microsoft Excel KB5002914 update breaks copy and paste for some users Sponsor Posts Overdue a password health-check? Audit your Active Directory for free Find your gaps before an auditor does. Check your EU CRA readiness in 5 questions. EtherHiding Malware on macOS: How Attackers Hide C2 on the Blockchain Stay one step ahead of new threats in the new year. Join Huntress for the monthly Tradecraft Tuesday. Upcoming Webinar Follow us: Main Sections News Community Forums Useful Resources Welcome Guide Company About BleepingComputer Terms of Use - Privacy Policy - Ethics Statement - Affiliate Disclosure Copyright @ 2003 - 2026 Bleeping Computer® LLC - All Rights Reserved Login Username Password Remember Me Sign in anonymously Sign in with Twitter Not a member yet? Register Now Help us understand the problem. What is going on with this comment? Spam Abusive or Harmful Inappropriate content Strong language Other Read our posting guidelinese to learn what content is prohibited. Submitting... |
Anthropic reported that between December 2025 and August 2026, multiple threat groups, including financially motivated actors and state-sponsored espionage groups linked to Russia and China, attempted to misuse the Claude artificial intelligence model for malicious activities. These activities spanned cyber and influence operations, surveillance, scams, the development of biological and conventional weapons, and model distillation. The reported misuse disrupted several activities associated with the ShinyHunters collective, which is known for massive data theft operations often initiated through social engineering and account compromise. One specific instance involved an alleged French-speaking member of the group, using the handle ‘frkoo,’ who established a pipeline that mass-downloaded 1.8 million distinct Android APKs from various app stores. This process involved decompiling these applications and scanning them for hardcoded secrets using tools like TruffleHog. This initial access was facilitated by a separate automated process used to collect GitHub organization email addresses to obtain Personal Access Tokens, which provided initial access credentials for many confirmed breaches. Furthermore, this actor operated a carding shop impersonating the French national police to sell stolen payment card records and maps of victim addresses. The speed and scope of attacks leveraging Claude were significant. With the aid of Claude AI, a suspected ShinyHunters threat actor reportedly extracted authentication data and obtained more than 2,100 sets of Azure AD authentication tokens across over 40 corporate Microsoft tenants in approximately thirty-four hours, with the AI agents performing nearly all the required work. Additional harmful actions attributed to ShinyHunters affiliates included stealing one terabyte of data from a technology provider, compromising an airline, and accessing the systems of an energy company. The attackers demonstrated rapid escalation, moving from a single stolen developer token to full administrative control over systems in less than three hours in one instance. Beyond the ShinyHunters activities, Anthropic noted extensive activity attributed to the Russian espionage group Midnight Blizzard, which utilized Claude for automating various stages of cyber operations, including malware development, infrastructure acquisition, phishing, command-and-control operations, data exfiltration, and persistence. This group established a feedback loop that allowed malware to be rebuilt whenever security products detected it. Their campaigns targeted over twenty government, defense, diplomatic, intelligence, and foreign-policy entities, employing tactics such as device-code phishing, ClickFix attacks, DNS hijacking via compromised hotel Wi-Fi providers, WhatsApp account takeovers, and malware targeting Windows, Android, and iOS systems, with Claude being integrated across these stages. Another significant espionage operation was linked to the Chinese-speaking group tracked as GTG-10007, where Claude served as the engineering and orchestration layer for a coordinated offensive program. This group used the AI to automate tasks such as intrusion attempts against production systems, reconnaissance of foreign-government networks across the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia, standing vulnerability research and exploit development against major endpoint-security products, and malware development. This effort also involved operating autonomous vulnerability-research workflows that uncovered previously unknown security flaws and delivered working exploits against several families of network and security appliances, ultimately targeting around fifty organizations across sectors including government, education, retail, energy, technology, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. In response to these observations, Anthropic took steps to disrupt the actors’ harmful use of Claude, banned the associated accounts, adjusted its safety guardrails to detect future misuse more quickly, and engaged with authorities and industry partners. |