AI Agents Enable Adaptive Computer Worms
A computer worm is malware that spreads on a network by replicating itself from one machine to another. Traditional worms, like WannaCry, exploited predetermined vulnerabilities, and their spread can be halted by patching those vulnerabilities. Here we show that artificial intelligence (AI) agents enable a fundamentally new threat: a worm that generates tailored attack strategies to each target it encounters. The worm parasitically uses compromised machines to run open-weight large language models (LLMs) to sustain its reasoning, or extend its reach for further attacks. Deployed on a network of machines spanning Linux, Windows, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, the worm propagated by ...
| Authors | Jonas Guan, Tom Blanchard, Hanna Foerster et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CR |
| Published | 2 June 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 2 June 2026 |
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