{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0815","record_version":1,"title":"CL-UNK-1211 espionage campaign against government Linux infrastructure using suspected AI-generated scripts and SysGoRAT","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":53.3,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":15.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":4.8,"unhedged_language":4.7},"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":"2026-11-03","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"confirmed","reason":"2 independent outlets","original_document":null,"reports_total":2,"reports_independent":2,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":true,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-03","history":[{"date":"2026-11-03","from_level":null,"to_level":"confirmed","reason":"2 independent outlets"}]},"sources_hash":"d82db63f1b31cbd3296b9552e53d31a75ac47cc8ac861836e7ddf717ed83e9c1"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"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":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-11-02","incident_class":"security_compromise","failure_class":"data_exfiltration","agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"Between October 2025 and April 2026, a threat actor tracked as CL-UNK-1211 targeted Linux systems associated with government entities and state-linked infrastructure, conducting reconnaissance, maintaining persistent access and attempting to collect sensitive information. The campaign combined open-source tools, custom backdoors and persistence techniques, including the Go-written SysGoRAT remote access trojan, credential harvesting via a malicious .bashrc and injected PHP login pages, and attempts to dump databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes. Several PHP and shell scripts appeared to have been generated with the help of AI, containing conversational, step-by-step reasoning notes. A bash script named zip_mails.sh failed during execution due to syntax errors. The attackers also attempted to disable endpoint protections, remove system logs and plant misleading red-team artefacts. The finding does not establish which AI system may have been used.","tags":["ai-assisted-hacking","cyber-espionage","credential-harvesting","data-exfiltration","government-infrastructure","linux-malware","remote-access-trojan"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":"The document attributes AI-generated or AI-agent-deployed scripts to reconnaissance, persistence and exfiltration activity, but does not describe the agent's own failure mechanism; classification is inferred from the described behaviour.","responsible_party":"third_party","adversarial_actor":"external_attacker","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"Major: a live production compromise of government and state-linked Linux infrastructure, with database dumping and government mailbox exfiltration attempted, though no loss figure or count is stated.","harm_class":["privacy","third_party_security","operational"],"affected_description":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":["credentials","email"],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://the420.in/sysgorat-government-linux-servers-ai-espionage/","publisher":"The 420.in","date":"2026-11-02","type":"press","title":"SysGoRAT Targets Government Linux Servers With Suspected AI-Generated Scripts - The 420.in","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/11/government-linux-servers-targeted-with.html","publisher":"The Hacker News","date":"2026-11-02","type":"press","title":"Government Linux Servers Targeted With SysGoRAT and Suspected AI-Generated Scripts","archived_url":null,"attachment":"fingerprint","independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","event.failure_class":"C","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.summary":"C","event.tags":"C","event.responsible_party":"C","event.adversarial_actor":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","event.failure_class_detail":"C","impact.severity":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.data_categories_exposed":"C","impact.severity_because":"C","context.industry":"C","context.country":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The finding does not establish which AI system may have been used, but it points to growing use of generative AI in post-exploitation workflows."}],"event.failure_class":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The attackers attempted to dump sensitive databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes to access social media accounts."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"The attackers have also been found attempting to generate a bash script named \"zip_mails.sh\" in a bid to compress emails of interest into ZIP archives and exfiltrate the information."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The campaign, tracked as CL-UNK-1211, was observed between October 2025 and April 2026."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Unit 42 said the threat actor concentrated on Linux systems associated with government entities and state-linked infrastructure."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers conducted reconnaissance, maintained persistent access and attempted to collect sensitive information from compromised environments."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The campaign also deployed a custom remote access trojan written in Go and tracked as SysGoRAT."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"One involved replacing the .bashrc file with a malicious version containing commands designed to capture passwords."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Another method involved injecting code into PHP login pages to collect administrator credentials."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers also attempted to generate a bash script called zip_mails.sh to compress selected messages into ZIP archives for exfiltration."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"However, syntax errors in the script caused it to fail during execution."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Researchers said several PHP and shell scripts used in the operation appeared to have been generated with the help of AI."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Rather than containing only conventional developer comments, some scripts included conversational, step-by-step reasoning notes explaining what the code was intended to do."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers also attempted to disable endpoint protections, remove system logs and plant misleading red-team artefacts that could make malicious activity appear to be part of an authorised security assessment."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The finding does not establish which AI system may have been used, but it points to growing use of generative AI in post-exploitation workflows."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure was targeted in a cyber espionage campaign that combined custom malware, web shells and suspected AI-generated scripts to maintain access, steal credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers used several techniques to steal credentials from targeted systems."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The campaign also deployed a custom remote access trojan written in Go and tracked as SysGoRAT."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Unit 42 said the threat actor concentrated on Linux systems associated with government entities and state-linked infrastructure."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The campaign, tracked as CL-UNK-1211, was observed between October 2025 and April 2026."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure was targeted in a cyber espionage campaign that combined custom malware, web shells and suspected AI-generated scripts to maintain access, steal credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure was targeted in a cyber espionage campaign that combined custom malware, web shells and suspected AI-generated scripts to maintain access, steal credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"Their presence suggests that the code was either copied directly from an AI prompt output or deployed by an automated AI agent."}],"event.failure_class_detail":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"The threat actor has also been observed using malicious PHP and shell scripts, likely generated using AI, to maintain persistence, perform reconnaissance, and exfiltrate data."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers conducted reconnaissance, maintained persistent access and attempted to collect sensitive information from compromised environments."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to the researchers, the campaign included efforts to dump databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes, including messages that could help identify or access social media accounts."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to the researchers, the campaign included efforts to dump databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes, including messages that could help identify or access social media accounts."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers also attempted to disable endpoint protections, remove system logs and plant misleading red-team artefacts that could make malicious activity appear to be part of an authorised security assessment."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure was targeted in a cyber espionage campaign that combined custom malware, web shells and suspected AI-generated scripts to maintain access, steal credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42."}],"impact.data_categories_exposed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The attackers used several techniques to steal credentials from targeted systems."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to the researchers, the campaign included efforts to dump databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes, including messages that could help identify or access social media accounts."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Government and state-affiliated Linux infrastructure was targeted in a cyber espionage campaign that combined custom malware, web shells and suspected AI-generated scripts to maintain access, steal credentials and exfiltrate sensitive data, according to researchers at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Unit 42 said the threat actor concentrated on Linux systems associated with government entities and state-linked infrastructure."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The document describes a cyber espionage campaign in which AI is suspected of having been used to generate malicious scripts, but it does not establish which AI system was used, nor whether an autonomous agent was involved. The article states the scripts 'may have been copied directly from an AI-generated response or deployed through an automated AI agent', so agent_involved is left null rather than true. No loss figures, record counts, affected organisation counts, or dates of detection are stated. The campaign window (October 2025 to April 2026) is given but no specific incident date. The country of the targeted organisations is not stated. The date_disclosed is taken from the document metadata (published 2026-11-02), not from the article text. The severity is graded major on the basis of a live production compromise of government infrastructure with attempted database and mailbox exfiltration, though no quantified loss is stated. The responsible_party is coded third_party because the attackers are external; the document does not identify a provider or deployer defect. Extractor proposed values without quotes; dropped: ['context.country', 'context.denominator_available', 'event.date_disclosed', 'event.detection_method', 'event.trigger', 'system.autonomy_level', 'system.deployment_context']. Single secondary source; corroborate before upgrading any field to B. The document does not name the AI model, developer, harness, or the specific agent that generated or deployed the scripts; it only says the code was 'likely generated using AI' or possibly deployed by an automated AI agent. No dates for individual intrusions, no loss figures, no record counts, and no affected jurisdiction are stated. The campaign window (October 2025 to April 2026) is given but no single event date. Detection method and trigger are not stated. The agent_involved=true and failure_class are judgement calls based on the researchers' statement that scripts may have been deployed by an automated AI agent; the document does not describe the agent's own failure mechanism. The second half of the article describes separate threat-actor use of ARTEX, PentAGI, Hexstrike and CAIRN frameworks but gives no concrete dated incident with loss, so it was not extracted as a separate record. Extractor proposed values without quotes; dropped: ['context.country', 'event.date_disclosed', 'event.detection_method', 'event.root_cause', 'event.trigger', 'system.autonomy_level', 'system.deployment_context', 'system.developer']. Extractor quotes not found verbatim in document; dropped: ['event.summary']. Single secondary source; corroborate before upgrading any field to B. [2026-11-03: evidence level set: Confirmed (2 independent outlets)]"},"context":{"industry":"Public Administration","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}}