{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0612","record_version":1,"title":"Claude Code and DeepSeek used in Chinese cyber espionage campaign","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":51.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":6.0,"completeness":4.8,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Security Affairs · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Security Affairs · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"c15f13c23ef6de2f6ffc54c2ac546aa85e80040faedd31fdeb1fd6eaff1eca5f"},"system":{"model_name":"DeepSeek-v4-pro","model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":"Claude Code 2.1.165","tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":"2026-06-01","date_occurred_precision":"month","date_disclosed":"2026-07-16","incident_class":"security_compromise","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"third_party","summary":"Security researchers at Hunt.io found an active intrusion campaign in which Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro were working parts of the intrusion. The recovered logs show the attackers split the work between two AI models: Claude Code 2.1.165 handled execution, and DeepSeek-v4-pro handled planning, script generation and attack technique choice. Targets included government administrative systems in Thailand and Afghanistan, eight organizations in Taiwan with two successfully exploited, and financial services firms in several regions. The researchers found the campaign while pivoting on known command-and-control infrastructure, and an open directory on one server exposed the operators' source code, exploit scripts and logs. Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs on July 6, 2026, and held publication for a seven-day disclosure window.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK07","secondary_risks":["RK04","RK03"]},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"Test: many third parties, meaning a stated count of two or more affected parties. Fact: the report states two of eight organizations in Taiwan were successfully exploited, and government systems in Thailand and Afghanistan were compromised.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":["names","national ID numbers","job titles"],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://securityaffairs.com/195474/ai/claude-code-and-deepseek-powered-chinese-cyber-espionage-campaign.html","publisher":"Security Affairs","date":"2026-07-16","type":"press","title":"Claude Code and DeepSeek Powered Chinese Cyber Espionage Campaign - Security Affairs","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.model_name":"C","system.harness":"C","event.date_occurred":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.detection_method":"C","impact.data_categories_exposed":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.secondary_risks":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","context.country":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro ran as working parts of the intrusion, not tools off to the side."}],"system.harness":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Claude Code 2.1.165 handled execution by running Bash commands, managing long-running sessions, carrying out tasks in parallel, and creating phishing infrastructure."}],"event.date_occurred":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro ran as working parts of the intrusion, not tools off to the side."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure."}],"impact.data_categories_exposed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The exfiltrated database held the names, national ID numbers, and job titles of government employees."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In Taiwan, eight organizations in supply chain and defense-adjacent sectors were mapped and fingerprinted, with two successfully exploited."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In Taiwan, eight organizations in supply chain and defense-adjacent sectors were mapped and fingerprinted, with two successfully exploited."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro ran as working parts of the intrusion, not tools off to the side."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The recovered logs show that the attackers split the work between two AI models."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"DeepSeek-v4-pro handled the planning by generating scripts, choosing attack techniques, and finding new ways to bypass defenses when earlier attempts failed."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In Thailand, attackers used SQLMap to exploit a government administrative system through SQL injection, gained admin panel access, and deployed a web shell disguised as a GIF file for persistent command execution."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In Taiwan, eight organizations in supply chain and defense-adjacent sectors were mapped and fingerprinted, with two successfully exploited."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"A parallel campaign hit financial services firms across Europe, Australia, and Asia."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"A single HTTP header fingerprint on port 1111 led them to 13 Hong Kong-based servers and, on one of them, an open directory containing 2,431 files and 80 subdirectories: victim source code, custom exploit scripts, cloned login pages, and operator logs with notes written in Simplified Chinese."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs on July 6, 2026, and held publication for a seven-day disclosure window."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Single press source (Security Affairs) relaying a Hunt.io report; the original report was not provided. The sources do not state the developers of the models beyond the Anthropic reference, the autonomy level, the deployment context, or whether Anthropic or DeepSeek changed anything afterwards, so those fields are omitted. No control is stated to have held, failed or been bypassed in this incident, so links is empty; the hardcoded keys and open directory are noted as facts but no control is named for them. The trigger and failure_class are omitted because the sources do not state the cause in closed-list terms or describe an autonomous agent acting without direction. Dates: the article's publication date is not in the body text, so date_disclosed is omitted; date_occurred and date_detected are recorded only at month precision from the stated June 2026. The number of affected third parties is not stated as a total, so the count is omitted. The Taiwan line ('two successfully exploited') was used as the stated count for the major severity test, and I judged the Thailand and Afghanistan compromises as government systems of others. Attacker country is not stated, so context.country is omitted; the 'China-based threat actor' phrase is the source's own assessment and is reported as such. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: Security Affairs · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"went_wrong","text":"An open directory on one of the Hong Kong servers exposed the operators' files, including victim source code and operator logs.","quote":"A single HTTP header fingerprint on port 1111 led them to 13 Hong Kong-based servers and, on one of them, an open directory containing 2,431 files and 80 subdirectories: victim source code, custom exploit scripts, cloned login pages, and operator logs with notes written in Simplified Chinese.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"Hunt.io researchers found the active campaign while pivoting on known command-and-control infrastructure.","quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs on July 6, 2026.","quote":"Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs on July 6, 2026, and held publication for a seven-day disclosure window.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://securityaffairs.com/195474/ai/claude-code-and-deepseek-powered-chinese-cyber-espionage-campaign.html"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Hunt.io researchers found an active intrusion campaign while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure.","quote":"Hunt.io researchers stumbled onto an active intrusion campaign in June 2026 while pivoting on known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure.","source_index":0,"when":"June 2026"},{"text":"Timestamps on the recovered files span June 8 through 12, 2026.","quote":"Timestamps on the files span June 8 through 12, 2026, and the three servers sharing SSH keys were actively maintained as recently as June 18-19, when all three reissued their ARL certificates together.","source_index":0,"when":"June 8 through 12, 2026"},{"text":"Three servers sharing SSH keys were actively maintained as recently as June 18-19, when all three reissued their ARL certificates together.","quote":"Timestamps on the files span June 8 through 12, 2026, and the three servers sharing SSH keys were actively maintained as recently as June 18-19, when all three reissued their ARL certificates together.","source_index":0,"when":"June 18-19"},{"text":"Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs.","quote":"Hunt.io notified the affected organizations and national CERTs on July 6, 2026, and held publication for a seven-day disclosure window.","source_index":0,"when":"July 6, 2026"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://securityaffairs.com/195474/ai/claude-code-and-deepseek-powered-chinese-cyber-espionage-campaign.html"]}}