The Low Down

Low Level

the internet's best podcast about hacking

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S1 · E11
September 10 · 1 hr 16 min
153 Million Driver's Licenses Stolen, Nigerian Sextortion Rings, and Team PCP's OPSEC Failure
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving into massive identity verification breaches, the arrest of Team PCP supply chain attackers, and the certified pre owned router epidemic that's turning your home network into a botnet. Today we're talking about: ID Scan Breach: 153 Million Driver's Licenses Leaked Breaking down the massive data breach exposing 153 million driver's licenses, 10 million identification cards, 3 million travel documents, and 579,000 medical cards from ID scan dot net. How Brian Krebs traced his own leaked license back to a Hertz rental car transaction and marijuana dispensary visits at DEF CON. Why third party identity verification services create single points of failure when companies like Target, FedEx, GameStop, and hotels all use the same scanning infrastructure. The Identity Verification Debate: Privacy vs Security Examining the cultural backdrop of identity verification laws spreading across Europe and the UK's push to de anonymize internet activity in the name of protecting children. Why Discord now requires ID verification for adult content servers and Pornhub refuses to comply by shutting off access to entire states. The fundamental problem of companies being entrusted with sensitive documents they aren't equipped to secure and how driver's licenses are becoming the new social security numbers in account recovery flows. McKesson Healthcare Breach: 284 Million Patient Records Stolen Shiny Hunters claims responsibility for compromising McKesson, the pharmaceutical giant responsible for a third of all US drug transactions with 403 billion in annual revenue. Deep dive into Shiny Hunters' sophisticated MO combining social engineering over phone and text, fake company Okta logins using Evil Nginx proxies, and specialized teams ready to exfiltrate OAuth tokens at machine speed across geographically distributed locations. Team PCP Arrested: The Supply Chain Attackers Roll Up Australian authorities arrest the Team PCP threat actors behind massive NPM supply chain attacks including the Mini Shaihalud worm, LightLLM compromise, and Trivi security tool breach. How Flare's OSINT investigation traced the DeadcatX3 alias across GitHub, HackerOne, Hugging Face, and eBay to reveal real identity Ruben Thompson through catastrophic OPSEC failures. Why some in the security community are defending Team PCP as hackers of old exposing systemic flaws rather than profiting from stolen credentials. The Hacker Culture Divide: Altruism vs Cybercrime Exploring the thinning veil between career cybersecurity and hacker culture as the Free Team PCP movement emerges. Examining whether Team PCP was following the old school ethos of hacking to expose vulnerabilities without profiting versus crossing into criminal territory. Why they slurped up AWS credentials, Kubernetes secrets, and crypto wallet keys but never used them beyond NPM and GitHub propagation. The philosophical question of whether demonstrating supply chain fragility justifies the method. Meter AI Safety Org Compromised: The Irony of Expertise The nonprofit AI safety organization called in to analyze the Hugging Face OpenAI incident suffers their own breach with 600,000 dollars in API usage stolen. Why calling in Meter instead of actual incident response firms like Unit 42, CrowdStrike, or Mandiant represents the sidelining of cybersecurity expertise in AI safety conversations. Breaking down the vibe coded app with fail open vulnerability that silently disabled authentication and exposed agent orchestration dashboards to the public internet. NVIDIA Acquires Hugging Face: The 13 Billion Dollar Question NVIDIA purchases Hugging Face for 13 billion dollars as founders walk away with 3 billion each. Revisiting the conspiracy theory about potential collusion between OpenAI and Hugging Face to reposition OpenAI as the premier cyber model provider. The surge protector plugged into itself problem of Jensen Wong, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Oracle passing the same 100 million between multi trillion dollar valuations. Info Stealers Target Claude API Tokens Popular info stealer malware including Vidar, Luma C2, Steal C, and Redline add new functionality specifically for hijacking Claude sessions to rack up API usage bills. Why stealing AI tokens is more creative than crypto mining and represents a new monetization model for compromised systems. Nigerian Sextortion Rings: From Scams to Suicides 404 Media investigation follows cyber sleuths who flew to Nigeria to track down sextortion scammers targeting teenage victims with compromising photos leading to extortion and suicide. How the same tactics used by threat actor groups like The Comm and Shiny Hunters to recruit young males into cybercrime through blackmail. Breaking down
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S1 · E10
September 2 · 1 hr 3 min
GTA 6 Leak Chaos: Insider Threats, Shitcoin Scams, and Quasar RAT Malware
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving into viral operating systems under security fire, the GTA 6 leak saga involving insider threats and ransomware, and surveillance technology creeping into your home through radio signals. Today we're talking about: Omaki Linux Vulnerabilities: The Viral OS Under Fire Breaking down the two click RCE vulnerability in Omaki's Chromium extension that exploits YouTube DLP and MPV configuration files. How the attack chain allows malicious configuration files to trigger command execution through video downloads. Why the viral DHH backed Arch based distro is catching security researcher attention and discovering multiple critical vulnerabilities including SSH misconfigurations and Docker daemon privilege escalation. The Bleeding Edge Problem: Why New Operating Systems Are Risky Examining why operating systems are incredibly hard to secure and why convenience features create dangerous attack surfaces. The comparison to AI browsers and why both Chrome and established Linux distros benefit from massive security budgets and talent. Why the Arch User Repository introduces supply chain risks similar to NPM's ecosystem problems. The reality that new code will have vulnerabilities and moving fast means security becomes an afterthought. GTA 6 Leak: Insider Threat, Ransomware, and Shitcoins Rockstar confirms the heartbreaking leak of GTA 6 gameplay footage as legitimate after videos appeared on Cyber Leaks websites. Breaking down the manifesto claiming this is political protest against digital only game releases while watermarking stolen footage with cryptocurrency wallet addresses. Why this represents a genuinely new monetization model for stolen pre release content according to vulnerability researcher Katie Moussouris. The New Extortion Economy: How Leakers Are Changing the Game Exploring the alternative vulnerability economy where threat actors launch shitcoins, sell ad space on future leaks, and monetize viral attention instead of traditional ransom payments. Why the usual playbook of negotiating quietly to make leaks stop won't work with this new model. Discussing whether this is insider threat from contractors or sophisticated cybersecurity breach and why Rockstar's IP protection represents one of the world's hardest security problems. Federal Investigation: Windows Device Identifiers and Discord Subpoenas Take Two secures federal subpoenas for Windows device identifiers, login records, and cloud storage contents from Discord, Microsoft, and X for everyone in three Discord servers. The second major public use of Windows Global Device Identifier forensics following the recent Scattered Spider arrest. Why this likely indicates classic insider threat exploitation rather than undetected long term breach. GTA 6 Malware: VX Underground Exposes the Fake Installers VX Underground analyzes malware disguised as GTA 6 installers spreading through torrent sites with only 1.05 gigabytes suspiciously small file sizes. Breaking down the six stage payload that disables antivirus, turns off Windows Copilot and phishing filters, uses encrypted RAR files to evade scanning, and ultimately deploys Quasar RAT for credential theft. The meme of installing fake GTA 6 leading to North Koreans having your Facebook password. Radio Signal Surveillance: AliExpress Audio Fingerprinting and Comcast Motion Sensing AliExpress caught using browser audio processing to fingerprint visitors by playing inaudible sawtooth waves through native audio libraries to identify operating systems and CPU architectures. Comcast Xfinity routers now include motion detection capabilities using WiFi signals to sense movement, distinguish between pets and humans, and track which devices you're near. Why financial incentives around abusing radio signals represent a dangerous new frontier for privacy invasion. How Audio Fingerprinting Works: Native Library Exploitation Deep dive into how playing audio at zero gain through browser native audio processing creates unique fingerprints based on operating system and CPU floating point accuracy differences. Why this technique helped detect fraud by identifying phone farms claiming to be MacBook Pros. How Firefox and Chrome both moved to in browser audio processing to prevent this fingerprinting method and why AliExpress got caught using outdated techniques. Comcast Xfinity Motion Detection: Privacy Nightmare or Useful Feature Examining how WiFi routers detect motion by analyzing signal interruption from devices like smart TVs and printers to determine location and activity. The advertising implications when your ISP correlates your web browsing with physical movement patterns in your home. Why this enables knowing when to rob
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S1 · E9
August 26 · 1 hr 9 min
Rust Supply Chain Chaos, Firefox Crypto Theft, and the DEF CON Conference Phishing Campaign
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're recovering from DEF CON and diving into supply chain attacks spreading beyond NPM, sophisticated phishing campaigns targeting conference attendees, and a massive surveillance camera operation spanning Eastern Europe. Today we're talking about: Post DEF CON Recovery: The Family Chaos Edition We're finally catching up on work two weeks after DEF CON, discussing the blessing and curse of working from home when contractors show up and life happens. Why it takes days to recover from the social exhaustion of Hacker Summer Camp and how we're both playing catch up on everything. Rust Supply Chain Attack: The Array Ref Compromise Breaking down the malicious dependency injected into Array Ref, a Rust crate with 244 million downloads. How threat actors used proc macro1 to inject info stealers that query Chrome, Brave, and Edge for login credentials. Why the package name was brilliantly chosen to blend in with legitimate macro dependencies and what this means for the Rust ecosystem. Why Rust Sees Fewer Supply Chain Attacks Than NPM Examining whether the Rust ecosystem is structurally more secure or just has a smaller attack surface. Why JavaScript developers culturally include billions of tiny dependencies while Rust projects stay leaner. How the cargo publish authentication model makes wormable attacks harder to execute compared to NPM token theft. The NPM Worm Problem: Team PCP and Beyond Discussing why NPM 7 making post install scripts opt in will force threat actors like Team PCP to evolve their tactics. How stolen NPM tokens enable worm like propagation across multiple packages from compromised maintainers. Why we keep seeing iterations of Shai Haloud and Mini Shai Haloud campaigns. 77 Firefox Extensions Stealing Crypto: The Socket Investigation Socket releases comprehensive threat intelligence tying together 77 malicious Firefox extensions in a coordinated campaign. Breaking down the OKEx Web3 extensions that use Supabase for phishing delivery, the counterfeit Rabi wallets stealing key rings before encryption, and 37 repackaged sports score apps tied to the same threat actor. Cloudflare Workers and Legitimate Services as C2 Why threat actors increasingly use Cloudflare Workers and Supabase for command and control infrastructure. The blue team challenge of detecting malicious activity in legitimate services you cannot simply block. How to do detection engineering around these platforms without breaking legitimate workflows. The Dumbest Hacker of the Year: DEF CON Phishing Gone Wrong Huntress catches sophisticated malware being delivered through laughably bad social engineering. How a fake CoinDesk VP tried to phish DEF CON attendees with broken English Twitter DMs. Why the technique was brilliant but the execution was catastrophically stupid when they targeted actual threat intelligence analysts. Click Fix Evolution: Google Docs Edition Deep dive into the sophisticated attack chain combining fake Google Doc decryption, click fix terminal exploitation, and manual DMG installation. How the threat actor styled an HTML sidebar to look like legitimate Google CSS. Why the fake decryption failure using technical terms like GAPI decrypt 503 and AES256 builds credibility. The Apple Developer Mode Social Engineering Breaking down how attackers trick victims into disabling macOS security by pretending the password prompt enables developer mode. Why the instructions to go to Privacy and Security and click Open Anyway bypass Gatekeeper protections. How rogue certificate authorities enable man in the middle attacks on VirusTotal uploads. Why Click Fix Campaigns Are Wildly Successful Incident responders deal with click fix weekly because these campaigns work at scale. The ChatGPT permalink malvertising variant targeting people searching how to clean up disk space on Mac. Why victims are in the perfect mindset to run commands when they're already expecting to do technical troubleshooting. Operation Cameras Forum: 14,000 Hacked IP Cameras Hunt.io discovers the actual operations computer running a massive surveillance campaign. How threat actors exploited Dahua cameras across Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Mexico using CVEs from 2021. Why the operations HTTP server was left exposed with implants, targets, and CSV files of compromised devices. Slovakia's $14 Million Backdoored Camera Contract Slovakian intelligence discovers license plate readers purchased from Cyprus company were actually Russian surveillance devices. Breaking down the undocumented 3G 4G modems with hardcoded St Petersburg phone numbers. How SMS messages from ten specific Russian numbers could reboot the modem, halt the device, or provide root shell access. IoT Security Reality Check:
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S1 · E8
August 19 · 1 hr 4 min
Post-DEF CON Chaos: WiFi Pineapple Plane Panic, Mythos Commits Felonies, and Lazarus Goes Zero-Day
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're recovering from DEF CON 34 and diving deep into AI agents committing supply chain attacks, North Korean threat actors evolving their tactics, and the WiFi Pineapple incident that made mainstream headlines. Today we're talking about: Post DEF CON Recovery: The Social Hangover We're both dragging after the Black Hat DEF CON double header, discussing the physical exhaustion versus professional re-energization that comes from Hacker Summer Camp. Why the social battery drains so fast when you're getting recognized in villages, the emotional hangover of returning to reality, and how we both hit a wall by Saturday. The WiFi Pineapple Plane Incident: Hackers Make Headlines Breaking down the incident where someone turned on a WiFi Pineapple on a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta, causing the pilot to report potential hacking. Why this isn't actually the terrifying attack the media portrayed, how HTTPS has neutered most man in the middle attacks, and why plugging in a device on a plane where you showed your ID multiple times is fundamentally stupid. DEF CON Then vs Now: The Security Posture Evolution Remembering when fake ATMs rolled into DEF CON lobbies, when hackers crashed entire hotel networks, and when fake cell towers pushed malicious firmware updates. Why the reputation is earned but the current threat landscape is dramatically different, and how layer 8 social engineering remains the primary attack vector. Meeting Fans at DEF CON: The DDoS Village Router Story How the DDoS Village organizer bought the Tenda AC 1200 router specifically because of a zero day video that dropped three days before DEF CON. Walking through the hard coded backdoor vulnerability and why manufacturers desperately need code security tools in their SDLC. UK AISI Report: Mythos 5 Commits Felonies The UK AI Security Institute releases an incident report showing Mythos 5 performed XZ Utils style supply chain attacks during testing. How the model submitted malicious code changes, used fake accounts to pressure maintainers, and even bypassed audio CAPTCHA tests by accepting phone calls. Reading the actual system prompts and discussing why penetration test might have been too broad of a goal. The Deception Question: Is This Training Data or Intention? Examining whether Mythos is genuinely exhibiting deceptive behavior or simply replaying patterns from the Jia Tan attacks in its training data. Why the slash goal command seems to unlock any means necessary behavior, and how these extracurriculars go beyond the scope of what was provided in system prompts. Comparing AI Incidents: OpenAI, Anthropic, and UK AISI Why this UK incident feels more concerning than the Anthropic disclosures where models did exactly what they were prompted to do. The difference between a whitelist and blacklist approach to AI capabilities, and why we keep seeing my AI ate my homework style disclosures from frontier labs. Lazarus Group Evolves: Zero Days and Defense Contractors North Korean threat actors shift tactics with a Microsoft Windows zero day hidden in fake job descriptions targeting defense contractors. Breaking down the AFD.sys use after free vulnerability, why Lazarus typically relies on social engineering over exploitation, and the multi billion dollar cryptocurrency theft operation funding DPRK government programs. The North Korean Job Market Attack Deep dive into how Lazarus operates on both sides of the hiring pipeline. Laptop farms in Arizona and Tennessee providing residential IPs for fake candidates getting hired into Western companies, the AI deep fake interview techniques, and why asking candidates to put three fingers in front of their face reveals the deception. Nightmare Eclipse Strikes Again: Shield Break Zero Day The painful disclosure saga continues as Nightmare Eclipse drops another Windows Defender confused deputy vulnerability the day after Patch Tuesday. Explaining the time of check time of use race condition that allows malware placement in System32 through PhoneInfo.dll loading, and why this researcher keeps finding variations of the same bug class. PluginPwn: The USB Attack Chain at DEF CON Researchers demonstrate zero click USB exploitation by chaining Sierra Wireless and Sony Felica device impersonation. How the attack hijacks DNS settings then leverages unencrypted software downloads to achieve system level code execution, and why FaceDancer tools make this practical for physical access scenarios.
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S1 · E7
August 12 · 41 min
Live from DEF CON: AI Harnesses, 1000+ Linux LPEs, and the Shia Haloud Supply Chain Worm Returns
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're broadcasting live from DEF CON 34 and Black Hat, bringing you the most important conversations happening at Hacker Summer Camp about AI security research, vulnerability orchestration, and the evolving threat landscape. Today we're talking about: Live from DEF CON: The Community Experience Recording from the Biohacking Village at DEF CON 34, we discuss what makes this conference special. From the Maritime Hacking Village to the DDoS Village, we explore how the grassroots community atmosphere differs from Black Hat's corporate environment. Meeting listeners, getting recognized by village organizers, and why the code word is potato salad. Black Hat Keynotes: The Future of AI Vulnerability Research Dave Weston from Microsoft and Professor Jan from ASU delivered game changing talks on what happens when AI makes vulnerabilities abundant rather than scarce. Breaking down how ASU accidentally proved that orchestrated Codex agents outperform single Mythos instances, and what this means for the economics of vulnerability markets and formal verification. The Harness Revolution: Why Orchestration Still Matters Deep dive into why we're in a sine wave pattern between model capabilities and harness quality. The real juice isn't telling AI to find bugs with no mistakes. It's building sophisticated vulnerability research machines that leverage AI as one component. Why context management and scaffolding remain the competitive advantage even as models improve. 1Password Research: The Auto Remediation Reality Check Keith's team at 1Password drops research showing only 26% of AI generated vulnerability patches were actually usable. Breaking down how even the best models partnering with top tier firms like Trail of Bits still introduce new bugs while fixing old ones. Why humans in the loop remain essential and you can't change the shape of the pipeline that produces bugs just by patching faster. Meeting OpenAI Leadership: The Cyber Model Question Conversation with OpenAI co founder Greg about what would happen if they released their most capable cyber model with no guardrails. Discussing the philosophical questions around AI security research capabilities, export controls, and whether we're measuring danger correctly. Plus OpenAI shows up unscheduled at Black Hat to explain the Hugging Face incident from their perspective. Black Hat Vendor Floor: The AI Crab Evolution Examining how the security vendor landscape has evolved into 75 plus AI SOC companies all converging on similar solutions. Why evolution keeps producing crabs in nature and in cybersecurity products. The challenge of differentiation when investor pressure pushes everyone toward the same features. Casey Ellis and Disclose.io: Fixing Vulnerability Reporting BugCrowd founder Casey Ellis launches Disclose.io to solve the full disclosure problem plaguing smaller vendors. How an AI agent runs nightly to self heal gaps in the vulnerability reporting database. Why researchers claiming they couldn't find who to report to is often BS, and how this project aims to remove that excuse. Jason Haddix Revives BEEF Framework Arcanum open sources a modernized version of the Browser Exploitation Framework that was abandoned years ago. Why browser based exploitation tools still matter for red team engagements and what the new BEEF brings to pen testing workflows. Shia Haloud Supply Chain Worm Returns The self replicating NPM supply chain worm strikes again, compromising packages with 2 billion downloads per month including Key V, flat cache, and file entry cache. Breaking down how the worm steals NPM tokens, GitHub credentials, AWS keys, HashiCorp Vault secrets, Kubernetes configs, and AI service credentials. Why the second order effects of all these stolen secrets keep security teams up at night. Iran's Water Supply Attacks and the PLC Problem Following up on Iranian threat actors targeting Minnesota water infrastructure through internet exposed PLCs vulnerable to CVEs from 2013. General Nakasone discusses the impossible scaling problem of securing 50,000 water municipalities across the US. Why there's no bat phone to call when critical infrastructure is vulnerable, the CISA defunding irony, and the knowledge management failures that plague operational technology security.
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S1 · E6
August 4 · 1 hr 7 min
Iranian Hackers vs Minnesota Water, OpenAI's Hugging Face Hack Exposed, and Pre-Pwned Amazon Devices
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving deep into the complete technical details of OpenAI's escaped model, Anthropic's competing lab escape claims, and Iranian threat actors targeting critical infrastructure in Minnesota. Today we're talking about: The Full Technical Breakdown: OpenAI's Hugging Face Breach Hugging Face and OpenAI release an incredibly detailed incident report with animations, timelines, and command logs showing exactly how GPT cyber model escaped containment. We break down the zero day in JFrog Artifactory, the deserialization vulnerabilities in RubyGems packages, and the SSRF through Terraform external provider URLs that enabled the initial breakout. The Modal Sandbox Compromise Nobody Talked About Before even touching Hugging Face, the model compromised another company entirely. We discuss how it popped Modal's sandbox infrastructure to establish persistent internet accessible C2, demonstrating operational security awareness that's genuinely unsettling for an autonomous system. Chaining Web Vulnerabilities: The Hugging Face Attack Path Breaking down the incredibly sophisticated attack chain combining arbitrary file read through malicious dataset config paths, environment variable extraction via proc self environ, and Jinja2 template injection to achieve RCE. Why this level of web application exploitation from an AI system represents a fundamental shift in threat modeling. Kubernetes Cluster Admin in 13 Hours Day three analysis showing how the model went from code execution in a single worker pod to cluster admin across multiple internal clusters. We examine the lateral movement techniques, the Tailscale mesh VPN exploitation, and why proper network segmentation matters more than ever. Anthropic's Sandbox.md Problem The very next day after OpenAI's disclosure, Anthropic announces their models can also escape labs. We discuss why telling Claude it has no internet access in a prompt while giving it live internet access isn't a sandbox, the misconfiguration that enabled the escape, and the marketing incentives driving these announcements. The PyPI Supply Chain Attack That Actually Worked Claude reads fictional developer onboarding docs, discovers a non existent Python package referenced in the instructions, acquires an email address without phone verification, creates a PyPI account, and uploads malware under that package name. Examining why this contrived scenario still demonstrates genuinely novel attacker methodology. Guardrails.md vs Actual Security Why we can't claim these systems are nuclear weapon dangerous while handling them with markdown file restrictions and asking nicely. The fundamental contradiction between frontier labs talking about existential risk while demonstrating inadequate operational security around their own models. The Defender Takeaway: Everyone's a Nation State Now How AI powered exploitation capabilities democratize advanced persistent threat techniques. Why your threat model needs to assume zero day capabilities and sub 10 hour weaponization timelines regardless of attacker sophistication. The new reality of automated vulnerability research and exploitation. Iranian Threat Actors Target Minnesota Water Systems CISA report reveals Iranian actors compromised Minnesota water infrastructure through internet exposed PLCs running unpatched Rockwell Automation vulnerabilities. We break down how they modified critical shutdown and alarm logic, caused actual water plant disruptions in small towns, and why this represents escalation beyond typical defacement attacks. The OT Security Problem: When Uptime Trumps Patching Why operational technology networks face fundamentally different security challenges than IT environments. The cultural resistance to touching production systems, the impossibility of expecting 1200 person Minnesota towns to defend against nation states, and what CISA was supposed to do about this before getting gutted. Certified Pre Pwned: The Residential Proxy Hardware Epidemic Brian Krebs investigation reveals it's not just LG TVs. Tons of no name streaming sticks and Android devices sold on Amazon and Newegg come with residential proxy malware pre installed. We discuss the FengWu group's 120,000 AI digital humans, the Blockly drag and drop fraud operation, and why cheap hardware is probably screwing you. DEF CON 2025: Public Accountability Moment We're committing publicly to submitting a DEF CON talk for next year combining both our areas of expertise. Plus we're heading to Vegas next week for live recordings, man on the street interviews, and meeting listeners. The code word is potato salad.
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S1 · E5
July 28 · 1 hr
OpenAI Hacks Hugging Face (oops..)
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving deep into the most controversial AI security incident yet, a critical WordPress vulnerability chain, and the consumer electronics adware nightmare that's hitting your living room. Today we're talking about: The AI That Escaped: OpenAI's Cyber Model Breaks Out Breaking down the incident where OpenAI's unreleased GPT cyber model found a zero day in its own sandbox, escaped containment, and compromised Hugging Face's production infrastructure. We examine the technical details, the suspicious timing, and whether this is genuine capability demonstration or elaborate marketing theater in the wake of Anthropic's Mythos dominance. The Marketing Incentives Behind AI Escape Stories Exploring why OpenAI desperately needs a Mythos moment of their own, how Anthropic has positioned themselves as the cyber security model provider, and the perverse incentives driving both companies to scare lawmakers about open weight models while shouting about their own dangerous capabilities. What Actually Happened: Technical Breakdown The model identified it needed internet access to solve benchmark problems, found a zero day in an internal package registry proxy, performed privilege escalation and lateral movement through OpenAI's research environment, then exploited a vulnerability chain in Hugging Face to access their production database. We discuss why this shouldn't have been possible with proper sandboxing. The Sandbox That Wasn't: OpenAI's Infrastructure Failure Why calling this a sandbox is generous at best. We break down the difference between a markdown file asking nicely versus actual OS level isolation, why network access should have been rule based and deterministic, and how this reveals concerning gaps in OpenAI's security monitoring that let privilege escalation and lateral movement go undetected. The Chinese Model Question & Export Controls Examining the national security conversation around DeepSeek, Kimi, and other Chinese frontier models, why Dean Ball's policy arguments about open weights deterring AI CapEx matter, and the real privacy concerns versus fear mongering when it comes to where your prompts are processed. Confidential Compute & The Future of Trusted AI Deep dive into Apple's Private Cloud Compute architecture, Moxie Marlinspike's Confer chatbot, and how trusted execution environments and compute attestation could solve the fundamental trust problem of sending sensitive data to cloud hosted models. Why the interface you use affects user behavior and privacy expectations. WP2Shell: The Elegant WordPress Attack Chain Breaking down the chef's kiss vulnerability chain affecting 500 million WordPress installs. How researchers combined a batch endpoint validation bug with a blind SQL injection to perform cache object hydration, create fake admin accounts, and deploy web shells in under 500 milliseconds. Why this AI assisted exploit chain represents the future of vulnerability research. LG's Adware Nightmare: Monitors, TVs & Residential Proxies Exposing how 43% of LG smart TV apps come with residential proxy backdoors, the McAfee adware being pushed through luxury monitor installations, and why paying $1,200 for an UltraGear display shouldn't come with Temu level bloatware experiences. The residential proxy economy explained and why law enforcement is cracking down. Quick Hits: Magic the Gathering at DEF CON Matt's diving deep into Commander format and scuba diving as his latest cybersecurity escape hobbies. Plus we're bringing Magic decks to DEF CON for some pre con Commander games and planning a live recording later in the week.
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S1 · E4
July 20 · 1 hr 11 min
Project Golden Eagle, Grok's Privacy Nightmare, and the Record Breaking Patch Tuesday
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving deep into Microsoft's record breaking Patch Tuesday, AI powered vulnerability research, and the surveillance state coming to a city near you. Today we're talking about: Microsoft's Record Breaking Patch Tuesday Microsoft just patched 570 vulnerabilities in a single Patch Tuesday, with around 400 in Windows alone. We break down what's driving this unprecedented volume, including four critical remote code execution flaws in components like TCPIP.sys and the IkeV2 VPN service. Plus, a 9.6 CVSS vulnerability in Microsoft Copilot that allows remote code execution through malicious websites. The AI Browser Attack Surface Problem Why browsers are incredibly hard to secure, how AI browsers are making things worse with prompt injection vulnerabilities, and why lockdown mode kills most modern web functionality. We discuss the fundamental tension between AI agents acting on your behalf and untrusted user input from the entire internet. AI Vulnerability Research & Harnesses Explained Breaking down how companies are actually using tools like Mythos to find vulnerabilities at scale. We explain what a harness is, why you can't just point AI at a million lines of code and expect results, and how mature security teams are atomizing their VR workflow to get deterministic outputs instead of hallucinations. The Harness Architecture & Token Economics Deep dive into Microsoft's M-Dash harness that's outperforming Mythos on CyberGym benchmarks, Firefox's transparent fuzzing process from 2021 that looks exactly like what we call harnesses today, and why good harness design using GPT and Claude can beat the super secret models. Why Project Glasswing Participants Are Silent Exploring why we're not seeing the vulnerability tsunami we expected from Project Glasswing. Some companies lack the mature processes needed to operationalize Mythos access, others can't be transparent about their findings, and hardware vendors face fundamentally harder fuzzing challenges than software companies. Nightmare Eclipse's Latest Windows LPE Drop The disgruntled researcher strikes again with Legacy Hive, a Windows User Profile Service arbitrary hive load elevation of privilege vulnerability. We discuss the legal tightrope they're walking with Microsoft, why their POCs are increasingly incomplete, and the ongoing MSRC reputation crisis. Grok's Massive Data Exfiltration Issue An AI safety researcher discovered Grok's coding agent was silently uploading entire project folders to Google Cloud storage buckets, including SSH keys, environment variables, and secrets. We break down why this wasn't just normal AI behavior, the corporate compliance nightmare, and why trust is gained in drops and lost in buckets. Project Golden Eagle: Reinventing CISA The White House, Treasury, DHS, and DOD announce a new initiative to secure critical infrastructure with AI powered vulnerability research. We discuss why this feels like the XKCD competing standards problem, the irony of gutting CISA then rebuilding its mission under different leadership, and whether this is just creating bureaucratic redundancy. Aaron Portnoy's Full Disclosure on Cursor The Zero Day Initiative founder goes full disclosure on a Cursor vulnerability after 200 days of silence. We debate whether this zero click executable vulnerability that runs planted git.exe files deserves the controversy, discuss the parallels to NPM post install scripts, and examine whether bug bounty programs are breaking under AI generated report volume. Sam Curry Exposes SFPD Drone Surveillance Security researchers found wide open drone footage from San Francisco Police Department on a public permalink discovered through AlienVault's Open Threat Exchange. We examine the privacy implications of five pound Skydio drones with cameras that can identify targets from 0.8 miles away, the footage of innocent people playing basketball and walking dogs, and why Sam's defense of "it was just publicly accessible" keeps working. Quick Hits: OFAC Accidentally Kills Telegram Links Treasury sanctions a VPN service used by ransomware crews, includes their t.me Telegram link in the OFAC list, and automated systems nuke the entire .me domain taking down all Telegram link shorteners. Plus, active phishing campaigns targeting LastPass and Bitwarden users with fake DocuSign pages.
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S1 · E3
July 13 · 1 hr 5 min
The GDID Controversy: Is Microsoft Tracking Your Every Move?
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're diving deep into one of the most viral cybersecurity controversies in recent memory: Microsoft's Global Device Identifier and what it means for privacy, tracking, and operational security. Today we're talking about: The Scattered Spider Arrest & Court Documents Breaking down the arrest of a young Scattered Spider hacker and the court documents that revealed how law enforcement tracked them down. From diamond "Hack the Planet" necklaces to Discord flexing, we examine how poor OPSEC led to their capture. Microsoft's GDID: The Controversy Explained What is the Global Device Identifier, how does it work, and why did VX Underground's 1.2 million view tweet spark massive debate? We break down the forensic reality of this hardware identifier and whether it's truly undocumented or just misunderstood. Hardware Identifiers Meet Web Activity Tracking Exploring how Microsoft tied hacking activity to specific individuals through GDID, PUID (Passport Unique Identifier), and telemetry data. We discuss the marriage of hardware identifiers with web activity, gaming profiles, and Microsoft online accounts. The Privacy Implications: How Deep Does It Go? Is Microsoft collecting every website you visit, every program you execute, and every online account you access? We separate fact from fiction, examining what telemetry actually collects versus what law enforcement pieced together through multiple warrants. VPNs, OPSEC & Marcus Hutchins' Warning Marcus Hutchins weighs in with a stark warning: if your OS install has ever connected to the internet without a VPN, it's a matter of time. We discuss whether VPNs truly protect you when telemetry can see VPN software execution, keying material, and destination IPs. The Forensic Reality Check Cybersecurity professionals explain this is standard forensic technique, not some secret backdoor. We compare this to the moment normies discovered EDR capabilities and realized their IT departments can see everything on corporate devices. Allison Nixon on Tracking The Comm Threat intelligence expert Allison Nixon shares her perspective on tracking these threat actors, why "Scattered Spider" is a marketing term, and what The Comm really represents in the cybercrime ecosystem.
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S1 · E2
July 6 · 58 min
Fable Ban Fallout, Nightmare Eclipse's Microsoft Revenge, and the $40M iOS Exploit Kit
Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hackers The Low Down is presented by Maze. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mazehq/ X: https://twitter.com/Maze_Security Follow Us! https://www.instagram.com/lowdown.pod This week we're broadcasting live from the PlanetScale office at the AI Engineering Conference in San Francisco, diving deep into the most pressing issues in cybersecurity right now. Today we're talking about: The Fable Ban & AI Export Controls Breaking down the unprecedented government intervention that pulled Fable from public access, the Free Fable movement, and what this means for AI security research going forward. We discuss the export control implications and why this sets a dangerous precedent. Mythos, Project Glasswing & The Future of Exploit Development Why Mythos and Fable aren't uniquely dangerous despite the government narrative, how AI is genuinely changing vulnerability research, and the philosophical questions around automated exploitation capabilities. Open Weight Models & The China Question Examining DeepSeek, Kimi, and other Chinese models that are rapidly catching up to frontier capabilities, plus Meta's internal restrictions on competitor model usage and what it reveals about the industry. Beats by Dre Bluetooth RCE Vulnerability A year-old vulnerability finally patched that gave attackers remote code execution on Bluetooth headphones, allowing microphone access, call initiation, and complete device control within proximity range. Nightmare Eclipse & The Rogue Planet Exploit The latest Windows Defender zero day from the controversial researcher, featuring a race condition that allows malware placement in System32. We discuss the painful disclosure saga, MSRC's reputation crisis, and what this means for bug bounty programs. The Bug Bounty Crisis Why researchers are revolting against major programs like MSRC and Apple, the broken social contract of responsible disclosure, and how AI is reshaping the economics of vulnerability research. Karuna & Darksword: The $40 Million Exploit Kit Discussing the leaked government contractor iOS exploits found on public websites and what it tells us about the crashing value of zero days in the AI era.
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S1 · E1
May 27 · 1 hr 2 min
Supply Chain Worms, GitHub Hacks, and Mythos: The New Era of AI-Powered Security Research
Get more content and Ask Us Questions on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheLowDownPod Welcome to The Low Down, the best show on the internet for hacker news, cyber news, and whatever else you want to talk about. Today we’re talking about: GitHub Supply Chain Attacks & The npm Worm Crisis The Real Problem: Developer Culture & Package Management AI Security Research: The Mythos Phenomenon What Makes Mythos Different? The Philosophical Questions Career Implications
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