First AI-powered ransomware, using OpenAI models to generate scripts that target Windows, Linux and macOS.

Brownie2019

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It was only a matter of time before artificial intelligence became a building block for cybercriminals. This week, researchers at ESET revealed what they are calling the first known AI-powered ransomware, a prototype dubbed PromptLock, which uses an open-weight AI model from OpenAI to generate malicious code on the fly.
Rather than carrying a static payload, PromptLock calls on the gpt-oss:20b model through the Ollama API, enabling it to write and execute Lua scripts directly on a compromised system. These scripts can scan directories, inspect files, exfiltrate selected data, and encrypt the results, all without the need for prepackaged binaries. That flexibility gives attackers a level of adaptability not commonly seen in traditional ransomware.
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