{
 "public_id": "AIR-2026-0145",
 "incident_id": "2026-04-aurora-ransomware-cursor-agent-intrusions",
 "date_disclosed": "2026-07",
 "date_occurred": "2026-04-08",
 "title": "An Aurora ransomware operator drove Cursor Agent (Claude Sonnet 4.5) to perform exploitation work across victim environments, exposed via an open directory",
 "class": "in_the_wild",
 "attack_surface": "coding_agent",
 "initial_vector": "policy_violating_use",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "autonomous_code_execution",
  "exploitation",
  "reconnaissance",
  "shell_access"
 ],
 "target_product": "Cursor Agent running Claude Sonnet 4.5",
 "target_vendor": "Cursor / Anthropic (abused); 20+ organisations (victims)",
 "autonomy_level": "semi_autonomous",
 "impact_realized": true,
 "impact_type": [
  "data_exfiltration",
  "service_disruption",
  "financial_loss"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "more than twenty organisations between April and July 2026; four victims listed on Aurora's leak site; ESXi environments targeted; ransom payments traced on chain",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI10",
   "ASI05"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "agentic_intrusion",
   "ransomware",
   "operator_shell_history_leaked",
   "esxi",
   "mixed_success",
   "open_directory_exposure"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": "Cursor and Anthropic usage policies and abuse detection",
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": "undisclosed",
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://www.cloudsek.com/blog/aurora-ransomware-affiliate-ai-attack-planning-crypto-payments",
  "https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1661"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "An exposed open directory revealed months of activity from belonging to a Russian speaking Aurora ransomware affiliate, active against more than twenty organisations between April and July 2026.",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "The record the corpus most needed: a general-purpose coding agent used as intrusion tooling in a live ransomware operation, evidenced by the operator's own shell history rather than by inference. Researchers were explicit that some AI-directed tasks succeeded and others failed, and that per-breach contribution could not be quantified — so this is agentic assistance in a real intrusion, not an autonomous attack. CloudSEK with TRM Labs; Gambit Security covered the ESXi and Cursor Agent tradecraft. AI Incident Database incident 1661.",
 "risk_category": "security_fraud",
 "risk_secondary": [
  "privacy"
 ],
 "risk_subcategory": "Remote Code Execution & Sandbox Escape",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [
  "Unauthorized financial commitment",
  "Ransomware & Extortion"
 ],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "agent_acted",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "Cursor Agent performed the exploitation work in victim environments",
 "vector_family": "misuse",
 "vector_detail": "policy_violating_use",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "abuse_detection"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [
   1661
  ],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI10",
 "agent_framework": "cursor",
 "model_provider": "multiple",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "unknown",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "privilege_escalation",
 "eai_domain": "access_control_and_permissions",
 "eai_secondary": [
  "data_exfiltration_channels",
  "uncontrolled_resource_consumption",
  "unsafe_actuation"
 ],
 "eai_reason": "subcategory: Remote Code Execution & Sandbox Escape",
 "asi_curated": [],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "rule",
 "asi_reason": "ASI10 (adversary-operated agent (vector_family=misuse)); ASI05 (vector=code_exec)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}