Hunt.io Reports Unattended Hermes AI Agent Used in Thai Finance Ministry Intrusion

Summary

Hunt.io and Bob Diachenko report that an operator already inside Thailand’s Finance Ministry network used Hermes in YOLO mode for scans and file crawls. Exposed logs revealed attack tooling, but no evidence showed data leaving the network.

Key points

Hunt.io and Bob Diachenko found agent logs and 585 files containing 470 MB of attack tooling on an exposed web server; they are the only public source cited for the ministry-specific findings.
Logs show Hermes running host scans, LinPEAS checks, elevated-permission searches, and a recursive crawl of a personnel-record directory dating to 2012.
The directory contained office documents, performance evaluations, and personnel records; the logs do not show those files leaving the network.
Recovered scripts targeted HiveServer2, whose default NONE authentication accepts any password, and used HiveCmd.jar to run operating-system commands through database queries.
Artifacts included a hidden web shell, custom scripts, and a Go implant called Hades; no recovered evidence shows Hades reached a ministry machine.
The operator’s initial access method is unknown. The recovered material does not establish that any of four scanned 2026 kernel flaws ran or that data was exfiltrated.
The article recommends checking HiveServer2 authentication, restricting user-defined function installation, and monitoring web-server connections to internal Hadoop ports.

Article Details

Attack Vectors: The operator had already accessed the ministry network before starting Hermes; the initial access method is unknown.
A hidden web shell was found on a ministry web server.
A custom script connected to the internal HiveServer2 service, which was configured to accept any password by default, and installed HiveCmd.jar as a user-defined function to run operating-system commands.
The operator tested default credentials against an internal GlassFish console, but successful deployment was not confirmed.
Hermes was run in YOLO mode to conduct host checks, privilege-escalation checks, filesystem searches, and a recursive web-root crawl without approval for each command.
A customized LinPEAS script checked for four Linux kernel vulnerabilities, but the article says there is no evidence that the flaws ran or affected a ministry kernel.
Defensive Notes: Check whether HiveServer2 authentication is set to NONE and restrict who can install user-defined functions.
Alert when a web server process connects to internal Hadoop ports such as 10000 or 50070.
Search web roots recursively for hidden PHP files with leading-dot names that imitate system caches.
Patch against CVE-2026-31431, CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500, and CVE-2026-43503; update sudo to 1.9.5p2 or later, patch polkit for CVE-2021-4034, and address any remaining IIS 6.0 WebDAV exposure.
Treat Hermes YOLO mode as unsafe outside trusted, sandboxed environments; it disables human approval for commands, although a separate blocklist remains.