AI IN THE MIDDLE: TURNING WEB-BASED AI SERVICES INTO C2 PROXIES & THE FUTURE OF AI-DRIVEN ATTACKS

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

AI assistants with web-browsing capabilities, specifically Grok and Microsoft Copilot, can be abused as covert C2 relays by using anonymous web access to fetch attacker-controlled URLs and return embedded commands, all without API keys or registered accounts. This PoC uses a WebView2-based C++ implant to create a bidirectional channel in which victim data is exfiltrated via URL query parameters and commands are returned via AI-generated responses, with simple encoding sufficient to bypass model-side safeguards. The research outlines a near-term evolution toward AI-Driven malware where implants shift from static logic to prompt-driven behavior, enabling AI-assisted anti-sandbox detection, intelligent victim triage, and targeted ransomware that prioritizes high-value files to evade volume-based detection thresholds.