Hundreds of Artex AI hacking tools left open on the web

Security firm Censys found more than 800 distinct deployments of Artex, an open-source Chinese-made autonomous penetration-testing tool, reachable from the internet with no password. Artex can run reconnaissance through data exfiltration with little human input; Microsoft has described it that way, and it has been linked to attacks including Korean finance targets and the ConnectWise incident. Exposed instances can also leak implants and other attack tooling. Artex has since said it will go closed-source for paid customers, but many code copies remain online. Misconfigurations, not just novel exploits, are what made these servers public.