--- title: Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack... description: A Chinese-speaking threat actor identified as 'knaithe'/'KnYuan' used the DeepSeek AI model combined with the open-source Hermes Agent to conduct autonomous... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack vulnerable servers | daily.dev og:description: A Chinese-speaking threat actor identified as 'knaithe'/'KnYuan' used the DeepSeek AI model combined with the open-source Hermes Agent to conduct autonomous... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/b4dqTODAh.png og:image:alt: Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack vulnerable servers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack vulnerable servers **[BleepingComputer](https://daily.dev/sources/bleepingcomputer)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A Chinese-speaking threat actor identified as 'knaithe'/'KnYuan' used the DeepSeek AI model combined with the open-source Hermes Agent to conduct autonomous cyberattacks against exposed servers. Discovered by Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 after the attacker accidentally exposed their own environment, the campaign showed an end-to-end autonomous offensive workflow: the AI independently researched vulnerabilities (including CVE-2026-33017 in Langflow and chained CVEs in n8n), identified targets via FOFA, downloaded exploits, and attempted attacks — all with minimal human involvement. While the autonomous AI attacks failed to compromise any targets, the actor separately conducted manual attacks, successfully compromising three systems via a Citrix NetScaler vulnerability. The campaign is notable for compressing hundreds of hours of manual targeting analysis into minutes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Chinese-Speaking Threat Actor Harnesses AI Models for Autonomous Cyberattacks](https://daily.dev/posts/chinese-speaking-threat-actor-harnesses-ai-models-for-autonomous-cyberattacks-9nzq2uolr) · Unit 42 · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#deepseek](https://daily.dev/tags/deepseek) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack vulnerable servers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah"},"datePublished":"2026-07-31T17:40:16.146Z","dateModified":"2026-07-31T20:33:54.933Z","description":"A Chinese-speaking threat actor identified as 'knaithe'/'KnYuan' used the DeepSeek AI model combined with the open-source Hermes Agent to conduct autonomous...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/aceb854334bb94d9d8e3fb971767429b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/aceb854334bb94d9d8e3fb971767429b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"BleepingComputer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"BleepingComputer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--as8nJ3qy--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774959951/logos/bleepingcomputer?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/bleepingcomputer"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/hacker-uses-deepseek-ai-to-autonomously-attack-vulnerable-servers-b4dqtodah","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-agents,deepseek","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BleepingComputer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/bleepingcomputer"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Hacker uses DeepSeek AI to autonomously attack vulnerable servers"}]} ```