Security Now (Audio)

Security Now episode 1098 examines AI agent safety concerns, discussing recent breaches from companies like Meta's Muse and OpenAI, the common thread of testing firm Irregular in multiple incidents, and whether AI poses an existential threat. Steve Gibson argues that while AI is powerful and unpredictable, the actual risks are manageable and benefits significant, contradicting doomsday predictions.

Steve Gibson discusses AI's current limitations in vulnerability remediation, Chinese router malware, and the critical importance of proper AI harnesses and human oversight. Research shows only 26% of AI-generated security patches work correctly without side effects, while 50% fail to fix vulnerabilities entirely.

Steve Gibson discusses a research paper revealing that LLMs identify roles (user, system, tool, thinking) primarily through writing style rather than tags, making them fundamentally vulnerable to prompt injection attacks. This architectural flaw stems from LLMs being statistical token prediction machines with no formal parsing or state management, and cannot be fixed without redesigning the entire system.

Security Now episode 1090, recorded live at Black Hat 2026 with Steve Gibson, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell, focuses on AI's impact on security, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the evolution of AI capabilities in both offensive and defensive contexts. The panel discusses how AI is revolutionizing code generation, vulnerability discovery, and the dual-use problem of AI knowledge.

Security Now episode 1086 covers Fable 5's degraded performance due to strict safety guardrails, Chrome 150's massive 433 security fixes, visual prompt injection attacks (Inkjet), and severe FATFS library vulnerabilities affecting millions of embedded devices. The episode explores how AI is transforming both offensive and defensive cybersecurity capabilities.

Security Now Episode 1085 covers Windows 10 receiving another year of extended support, Meta's employee surveillance program backfiring with exposed data, state-sponsored credential attacks on Fortinet devices affecting 86,000+ organizations globally, and AI's emerging capability to discover vulnerabilities at scale through iteration and looping techniques.

The podcast discusses the significant impact of AI on cybersecurity practices and Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions, noting a shift in the ability to solve challenges using AI tools. This transition raises concerns about the future of skill measurement in the cybersecurity field, as traditional CTF competitions are being undermined by AI's capabilities.

Security Now episode 1076 covers the discovery of FAST16.SYS, a sophisticated NSA-linked kernel rootkit from 2005 that subtly corrupted physics and engineering calculation software — predating Stuxnet by five years. The episode also covers a Bitwarden CLI supply chain attack, Iranian router malfunctions before the US/Israeli strikes, Meta's employee activity logging for AI training, and Steve Gibson's GRC e-commerce system rewrite.

Security Now episode 1075 discusses the growing threat of AI-powered vulnerability discovery, particularly Anthropic's Project Mythos, which Mozilla confirmed found 271 bugs in Firefox. The episode also covers a disgruntled researcher publishing Windows zero-days, Microsoft's record bug bounty payouts, and a formal industry-wide warning signed by top cybersecurity leaders urging immediate action.

Security expert Steve Gibson analyzes Anthropic's new Mythos AI model, which demonstrates superhuman capability in discovering software vulnerabilities. While Anthropic claims the model is too dangerous to release publicly, Gibson examines the evidence and concludes this represents a watershed moment for cybersecurity that exposes widespread flaws in existing software.

Steve Gibson analyzes the FCC's ban on all new foreign-made consumer routers, explaining why it's arbitrary and ineffective. The show also covers LinkedIn's 2.7MB JavaScript surveillance code that scans users' computers for over 6,000 browser extensions, and touches on Apple's new age verification requirements in the UK.

Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte discuss the LiteLLM PyPI exploit, a sophisticated supply chain attack that infected the popular AI proxy service with credential-stealing malware. The attack, executed by Team PCP, exploited a compromised security scanner (Trivy) to inject malware that would have affected 3.4 million daily downloads, but was caught due to a coding error that caused systems to crash.

Steve Gibson and guest host Micah Sargent discuss a critical security flaw in H&R Block's tax software that installs an untrustworthy root certificate with accessible private keys. They also cover 'bucket squatting' - a major vulnerability where attackers hijack abandoned Amazon S3 buckets to compromise software supply chains.

Steve Gibson discusses various cybersecurity topics including social media companies backing away from end-to-end encryption, malware disguised as VPN software, and his positive experience with CISA's free internet scanning service. He also addresses questions about AI-generated code and shares insights from security researchers about current threats.