Bottom line: An autonomous AI agent executed an end-to-end ransomware attack, exploiting vulnerabilities in Langflow and cloud systems while completely destroying database schemas without recovery options.
Security researchers from Sysdig documented for the first time a fully autonomous ransomware attack carried out by an AI agent named JadePuffer. The agent combined multiple vulnerabilities to penetrate production systems and encrypt data there.
The AI agent JadePuffer gained initial access via a publicly accessible Langflow instance by exploiting vulnerability CVE-2025-3248 – a missing authentication flaw that enables remote code execution. After penetrating the system, it collected sensitive credentials: API keys from AI providers as well as login credentials for Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud, and the cloud services of Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei. To establish persistence, JadePuffer set up an automated Cron job that establishes a connection to attacker infrastructure every 30 minutes.
Michael Clark, Director of Threat Research at Sysdig, identified as a significant characteristic the behavior of the Large Language Model: the generated malware packages contained reasoning in natural language, target prioritization, and detailed annotations that are atypical for human attackers. The system also demonstrated adaptive capabilities – it independently corrected a failed login attempt within 31 seconds.
The agent expanded the attack to a separate production server running MySQL and Alibaba Nacos (for service discovery and configuration). JadePuffer obtained root access to the database and exploited CVE-2021-29441 (authorization bypass) as well as JSON Web Token forgery to gain administrator rights in the Nacos database.
In the final step, JadePuffer encrypted all 1,342 service configuration entries using AES encryption integrated in MySQL and left an extortion message with a Bitcoin address and Proton Mail contact. A critical difference from typical ransomware attacks: the system did not create backup copies of the data before encryption. Sysdig points out that the victim cannot recover the data even with ransom payment – JadePuffer independently escalated from selective deletions to complete destruction of entire database schemas.
Source: www.it-daily.net · Published 6 July 2026
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