Hundreds of AI agents exploit PaperCut flaws, compromise 440 instances

September 10, 2026 at 06:55 PM1 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

An attacker used hundreds of AI agents to exploit PaperCut MF/NG vulnerabilities, compromising at least 440 instances across 48 countries. GreyNoise reported the campaign achieved domain administrator access in at least 12 organizations, with the fastest time being five minutes. PaperCut issued emergency patches on Aug. 27, 2026, but attacks began on Aug. 31.

Key Facts

The campaign exploited CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078, which can be chained for authentication bypass and remote code execution.
GreyNoise identified at least 440 compromised PaperCut MF/NG instances and 395 named victim organizations across 48 countries.
The first real-world remote code execution occurred less than four hours after exploit development began in an empty workspace.
The threat actor used a DeepSeek AI model with OpenAI's Codex as a harness, according to GreyNoise.
Education was the most impacted sector, with 204 victim organizations.

Attack Campaign

On Aug. 31, a threat actor using IP 45.142.193[.]132 began developing and testing PaperCut exploits in a self-hosted lab environment. The actor deployed hundreds of AI agents against vulnerable PaperCut MF and NG instances. The agents used a DeepSeek AI model with OpenAI's Codex as a harness, according to GreyNoise. Blackpoint separately observed the same campaign and recovered files from an exposed directory revealing the AI-assisted workflow.

Impact and Victimology

GreyNoise found at least 440 PaperCut MF/NG instances compromised, with 395 named victim organizations across 48 countries. The United States had the highest number of victims at 98, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Canada. Education was the most impacted sector, with 204 victim organizations. The threat actor used a list of 28 countries meant to be excluded, but organizations in those countries were still compromised, including nine attacks in South Africa and five in Brazil.