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Application Security

3 MIN READ

News



'DARKBERT' GPT-BASED MALWARE TRAINS UP ON THE ENTIRE DARK WEB

The DarkBART and DarkBERT cybercriminal chatbots, based on Google Bard,
represent a major leap ahead for adversarial AI, including Google Lens
integration for images and instant access to the whole of the cyber-underground
knowledge base.
Elizabeth Montalbano
Contributor, Dark Reading
August 01, 2023
Source: WrightStudio via Adobe Stock Photo
PDF


The developer behind the FraudGPT malicious chatbot is readying even more
sophisticated adversarial tools based on generative AI and Google's Bard
technology — one of which will leverage a large language model (LLM) that uses
as its knowledge base the entirety of the Dark Web itself. 



An ethical hacker who already had discovered another AI-based hacker tool,
WormGPT, tipped off the researchers that the FraudGPT inventor — known on hacker
forums as "CanadianKingpin12" — has more AI-based malicious chatbots in the
works, according to SlashNext.

The forthcoming bots — dubbed DarkBART and DarkBERT — will arm threat actors
with ChatGPT-like AI capabilities that go much further than existing
cybercriminal genAI offerings, according to SlashNext. In a blog post published
Aug. 1, the firm warned that the AIs will potentially lower the barrier of entry
for would-be cybercriminals to develop sophisticated business email compromise
(BEC) phishing campaigns, find and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, probe for
critical infrastructure weaknesses, create and distribute malware, and much
more.

"The rapid progression from WormGPT to FraudGPT and now 'DarkBERT' in under a
month underscores the significant influence of malicious AI on the cybersecurity
and cybercrime landscape," SlashNext researcher Daniel Kelley wrote in the
post..




DARKBART & DARKBERT: A NEW AI GENERATION

In terms of functionality, DarkBART will be a dark version of the Google BART
AI, and the hackers said it will be based on a large language model (LLM) known
as DarkBERT, which was created by South Korean data-intelligence firm S2W with
the goal of actually fighting cybercrime. It's currently limited to academic
researchers, which would make malicious access to it notable.



"The threat actor … claims to have gained access to DarkBERT," Kelley said,
adding that when contacted via Telegram, CanadianKingpin12 shared a video
demonstrating that his version of DarkBERT "underwent specialized training on a
vast corpus of text from the Dark Web," Kelley wrote.

The malicious developer also claims his new bot ... can be integrated with
Google Lens," Kelley added. "This integration enables the ability to send text
accompanied by images." That's notable given that so far, ChatGPT-like offerings
have been text-only.

The second adversarial tool, confusingly also named DarkBERT (but wholly
separate from the Korean AI), will go even further by using the entire Dark Web
as its LLM, giving threat actors access to the hive mind of the hacker
underground for carrying out cyber threats. It will also have Google Lens
integration, CanadianKingpin12 claims.




RAPIDLY EVOLVING DARK WEB GENERATIVE AI

Kelley noted that the developers of adversarial AI tools, like their more
benevolent counterparts, likely will soon offer application programming
interface (API) access to the chatbots, which will allow for more seamless
integration into cybercriminals' workflows and code and lower the barriers to
entry for the cybercrime game. 

"Such progress raises significant concerns about potential consequences, as the
use cases for this type of technology will likely become increasingly
intricate," Kelley wrote.

This rapid progression also means that defense against the threats will require
a proactive approach. In addition to typical training provided to enterprise
employees to identify phishing attacks, organizations also should provide
BEC-specific training to educate employees on the nature of these attacks and
the role of AI, the researchers said. Moreover, enterprises also should enhance
email verification measures to combat AI-driven threats, adding strict process
and keyword-flagging to measures already in place. 

"As cyber threats evolve, cybersecurity strategies must continually adapt to
counter emerging threats," Kelley wrote. "A proactive and educated approach will
be our most potent weapon against AI-driven cybercrime."

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