Modern Cyber with Jeremy Snyder

In this week's episode, Jeremy reports live from the sidelines of Infosecurity Europe in London.
As state-sponsored actors turn to thousands of automated recursive prompts to weaponize zero-days, the compliance landscape is fracturing: US state and federal frameworks are retreating into voluntary measures, while the EU AI Act locks in strict, unyielding mandates with firm deadlines.
Key Episode Highlights:
The Symjack Attack Vector: Security researchers uncover "Symjack," an exploit that hijacks symbolic link functions inside agentic-powered IDE setups to force automated environments into processing malicious payloads.
AWS Kiro Security Flaw: A newly patched CVE in AWS’s Kiro agent builder reveals a vulnerability that maps excessive write permissions to execution-sensitive paths.
Claude.ai Context Exfiltration: Attackers successfully demonstrate data extraction from Claude.ai by blending hidden HTML tags inside URL query parameters with targeted conversation searches and unauthorized model credential leaks.
State-Sponsored Recursive Prompting: Google Threat Intelligence confirms Chinese and North Korean actors are utilizing thousands of recursive prompts to evaluate CVEs and automate functional zero-day generation in the wild.
AI Engine Optimization (AIEO) Poisoning: Cybercriminals are targeting high-value GPU operators by poisoning AI recommendation search indexes with malicious prompts that trick models into surfacing cryptomining download traps.
Tool Abuse Escalation: Trend Micro's AI division moves beyond model description enumeration, proving that attackers can successfully force compromised autonomous agents into executing system tools maliciously.
Community Bank 8-K Corporate Leak: Pennsylvania-based Community Bank formally registers an SEC data breach after an under-pressure employee uploaded high-volume customer data to an unauthorized generative model platform.
The Regulatory Fracturing: While Colorado rolls back its landmark AI law and the White House steps back to voluntary security testing reviews, the EU AI Act remains rock-solid.

Episode Links
https://www.securityweek.com/symjack-attack-turns-ai-coding-agents-into-supply-chain-attack-delivery-systems/
https://flatt.tech/research/posts/poisoning-claude-code-one-github-issue-to-break-the-supply-chain/
https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/2026-037-aws/
https://www.oasis.security/blog/claude-ai-prompt-injection-data-exfiltration-vulnerability
https://cybersecuritynews.com/badhost-ai-agent-vulnerability/
https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/05/27/hackers-are-using-ai-to-find-security-flaws-no-scanner-can-catch-google-warns
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317423/20260530/ai-vs-ai-cybersecurity-sysdig-documents-first-llm-agent-intrusion-wild.htm
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/gpu-mining-malware-spreads-via-seo-poisoning-ai-chatbots/
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/05/27/ai-chatbot-cryptojacking-campaign/
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/02/nx-s1-5844347/ai-safety-trump-executive-order
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-confirms-claude-mythos-class-models-will-roll-out-to-the-public/
https://www.aitoday.io/colorado-rolls-back-landmark-ai-governance-law-a-31804
https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/pwning-agentic-ai-part-i-your-ai-agent-is-already-compromised
https://dailyhodl.com/2026/05/30/pennsylvania-bank-issues-urgent-alert-after-ai-application-triggers-data-breach-exposing-sensitive-customer-info/

In this episode, Jeremy explores how autonomous model execution is completely upending classical software patch cycles and regulatory risk modeling. From Anthropic’s early access model mapping out thousands of real-world vulnerabilities autonomously to state regulators drawing a hard line on frontier safety, enterprise security is in a state of rapid transformation.
Key Episode Highlights:
Autonomous Scaling with Mythos: Anthropic's safety validation partners reveal that the new model family has autonomously scanned and identified over 10,000 vulnerabilities across roughly 1,000 open-source repositories with zero human guidance.
The Apple M5 Silicon Exploit: Vietnamese security firm Khalif successfully leveraged model preview access to construct a functional macOS kernel memory corruption exploit, bypassing Apple's multi-billion-dollar hardware-level memory integrity protections in just five days.
The Starlette "Bad Host" Flaw: A critical vulnerability has been uncovered in Starlette, the core routing engine behind the FastAPI framework, putting thousands of production-tier Python data and AI infrastructure stacks at immediate risk.
Lapsus$ and Team PCP Joint Breach: Threat actors combined forces to target developer workstations, deploying malicious extensions directly inside VS Code environments to exfiltrate core corporate repository data.
New York DFS Landmark Directive: The New York Department of Financial Services has officially issued an industry-wide mandate treating frontier models as an independent category of cyber threat, forcing financial institutions to implement rapid vulnerability management and strict guardrails.
The Pulled Pre-Release Executive Order: The White House abruptly withdrew a highly anticipated framework that would have mandated 90-day voluntary pre-release security testing for frontier models, leaving enterprise compliance officers in a state of regulatory limbo.

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Episode Links
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/05/macos-kernel-memory-corruption-exploit.html
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/05/millions-of-ai-agents-imperiled-by-critical-vulnerability-in-open-source-package/
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/05/20/github-breached-teampcp/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/24/everyone-is-navigating-ai-security-in-real-time-even-google/
https://www.dfs.ny.gov/industry-guidance/industry-letters/20260521-heightened-cybersecurity-risks-assoc-with-frontier-ai-models
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/trump-canceled-ai-safety-testing-eo-after-snub-from-tech-ceos/

In this episode of Modern Cyber, host Jeremy sits down with Rich Mogull, the Chief Analyst at the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). Jeremy and Rich dive straight into the realities of AI-powered engineering, dissecting the risks and rewards of developer tool integrations like code copilots.
They walk through the core architectures of Large Language Models (LLMs), outlining how non-determinism and the collapse of traditional control and data planes trigger modern security threats like indirect prompt injection. Rich offers a detailed breakdown of the high-profile AWS Amazon Q outage, analyzing how over-automation and over-provisioned privileges can lead to catastrophic environment tear-downs when the "human-in-the-loop" goes for coffee.
Finally, the conversation shifts to Rich’s recent concept of "Core Collapse"—an astrophysics analogy for how AI-fueled offensive velocity creates a math problem of combinatorial complexity that human defenders cannot match alone. Learn how to combat this threat through goal-based permissions, deterministic guardrails, Zero Trust architectures, and proactive technical upskilling.
About Rich
Rich is the Chief Analyst at the Cloud Security Alliance where he focuses on leading-edge cloud and AI security research and implementation. He has over 25 years of security experience, with over 15 years of focusing on cloud and emerging technologies. Prior to joining the CSA full time Rich frequently collaborated with CSA as the principle course designer of the CCSK training class, primary author of the Guidance, and developer of the Cloud Security Maturity Model, among other projects.
As Researcher and CEO of Securosis, RIch taught cloud security and incident response at Black Hat for over 10 years, developed the free Cloud Security Lab a Week (CloudSLAW) project, and actively works on developing hands-on cloud security techniques. Rich also founded DisruptOps, a cloud security startup acquired by FireMon where he became the SVP of Cloud Security.
Prior to founding Securosis and DisruptOps, Rich was a Research Vice President at Gartner on the security team. Prior to his seven years at Gartner, Rich worked as an independent consultant, web application developer, software development manager at the University of Colorado, and systems and network administrator.
Rich is the Security Editor of TidBITS and a frequent contributor to industry publications. He is a frequent industry speaker at events including the RSA Security Conference, Black Hat, and DefCon, and has spoken on every continent except Antarctica (where he's happy to speak for free -- assuming travel is covered).
Episode Links:
Rich Mogull's CSA Profile: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/profiles/rich-mogull
Rich Mogull's "Core Collapse" Blog Post: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/blog/2026/02/26/core-collapse#_

In this episode for May 21, 2026, Jeremy looks at the rapidly compressing timeline of AI-driven exploits. From the first live confirmation of an AI-assisted 2FA zero-day to Microsoft's multi-agent "debate" system outperforming top frontier models, defenders are watching the offensive clock shrink in real time.
Key Episode Highlights:
First Live AI Zero-Day: Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTAG) confirmed the first in-the-wild exploitation of a semantic logic 2FA bypass discovered and weaponized entirely via an LLM.
Microsoft's M-Dash System: Microsoft revealed a framework utilizing over 100 specialized AI agents that scan code and debate each other's findings, scoring an unprecedented 88.45% on the UC Berkeley Cyber Gym benchmark.
TanStack Supply Chain Assault: Team PCP hit the TanStack ecosystem via token theft, successfully compromising two OpenAI employee devices and forcing a major code-signing certificate rotation.
Amazon Quick Bypass: Jason Kao of Fog Security uncovered a critical server-side authorization flaw in Amazon Quick that permits restricted users to bypass interface boundaries and access blocked AI chat agents.
PraisonAI Zero-Auth Exposure: A legacy configuration oversight in the PraisonAI framework left instances entirely unauthenticated, resulting in automated malicious scanning within four hours of disclosure.
The DBIR Vulnerability Milestone: The 2026 Verizon DBIR notes an extraordinary historical shift: vulnerability exploitation now accounts for 31% of confirmed breaches, completely lapping credential theft at 13%.

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Episode Links
https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/hackers-used-ai-to-develop-first-known.html
https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/ai-agent-prompt-injection/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2026/05/12/defense-at-ai-speed-microsofts-new-multi-model-agentic-security-system-tops-leading-industry-benchmark/
https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/openai-launches-daybreak-for-ai-powered.html
https://www.scworld.com/brief/anthropics-ai-finds-one-low-severity-vulnerability-in-heavily-audited-curl-codebase
https://decrypt.co/367883/openai-confirms-security-breach-ai-malware-campaign
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4171215/praisonai-vulnerability-gets-scanned-within-4-hours-of-disclosure.html
https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/13/google-users-fight-for-refunds-as-unauthorized-api-usage-bills-soar/5239160
https://www.fogsecurity.io/blog/authorization-bypass-in-amazon-quick-ai-agents
https://tech.diegocarpintero.com/blog/the-zero-trust-gap-in-llms
https://www.securityweek.com/verizon-dbir-2026-vulnerability-exploitation-overtakes-credential-theft-as-top-breach-vector/

In this episode for May 14, 2026, Jeremy breaks down a watershed moment in cybersecurity: the first confirmed case of hackers using AI to discover and weaponize a zero-day vulnerability in the wild. We also explore a major self-reported PII leak in the banking sector and the expanding attack surface of AI development environments.

Key Episode Highlights:
The First AI-Generated Zero-Day: Google Threat Intelligence confirms hackers used AI to discover and weaponize a 2FA bypass in an open-source admin tool, marking a transition from theoretical risk to documented reality.
Banking Sector PII Leak: Community Bank (operating in PA, OH, and WV) filed an 8-K reporting that sensitive customer data, including SSNs and dates of birth, leaked into an AI application during training.
The "Beagle" Backdoor: Sophos uncovered a fake Claude-Pro website pushing trojanized installers that deploy a memory-resident backdoor targeting AI coding environments.
Framework Exploitation: Research reveals how prompt injection in popular frameworks like Semantic Kernel, LangChain, and CrewAI can escalate to full remote code execution (RCE).
Phonetic Obfuscation: New proof-of-concept research shows that LLMs can navigate phonetic misspellings to interpret malicious intent, effectively bypassing standard text filters.
Pixel-Perfect Phishing: Vercel’s v0.dev tool is being used by attackers to generate nearly perfect brand impersonations for Nike, Adidas, and Microsoft, making phishing detection significantly harder.
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Episode Links
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/beyond-source-code-the-files-ai-coding-agents-trust-and-attackers-exploit
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2026/05/07/prompts-become-shells-rce-vulnerabilities-ai-agent-frameworks/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-claude-ai-website-delivers-new-beagle-windows-malware/
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/researchers-10-wild-indirect/
https://www.darkreading.com/cloud-security/hackers-ai-exploit-dev-attack-automation
https://www.darkreading.com/ics-ot-security/worlds-first-ai-driven-cyberattack-couldnt-breach-ot-systems
https://hackread.com/hackers-exploit-vercel-genai-phishing-sites/
https://bishopfox.com/blog/cve-2026-42208-pre-authentication-sql-injection-in-litellm-proxy
https://securityaffairs.com/191888/data-breach/braintrust-security-incident-raises-concerns-over-ai-supply-chain-risks.html
https://shape-of-code.com/2025/06/29/an-attempt-to-shroud-text-from-llms/
https://databreaches.net/2026/05/12/us-bank-reports-itself-for-revealing-customer-data-to-unauthorized-ai-application/