Full transcript
“AI for hacking?” The big idea
0:00It doesn't necessarily have to be used
0:01for evil.
0:02>> [laughter]
Introducing Shannon (AI penetration tester)
0:15>> So, I know we were talking about this
0:17Claude code for hackers. Am I saying
0:20that right? Is that the best way to
0:21describe it?
0:22>> Yeah, I mean that's basically what it
0:23is. I thought it was really crazy. This
0:26is actually just in the last day. So,
0:28when you're watching this, it's very
0:30recent. Basically,
0:32um somebody has released a tool and they
0:36are calling it Shannon and it's
0:38basically Claude code but for hacking.
0:41Now, I know what you're thinking. Why
Why hacking ≠ always evil
0:43would somebody do something like that?
0:45And really, you have to remember that
0:47hacking is actually a profession. So,
0:49it's not just something that, you know,
0:51scammers do to try and extort people or
0:54whatever.
0:55This is essentially Claude code but
0:58designed for hacking. It says Shannon AI
1:02pen tester by KeyGraph, right? So,
1:04that's really what it started as. It
1:06started as the you know, an AI-powered
1:08penetration tester and now it is the
1:10number one GitHub trending repository of
From tool to #1 GitHub trending repo
1:13the day. Let that just kind of sit with
1:15you for a minute. Somebody designed a
1:17really cool AI-powered hacking tool to
1:20be able to automate a lot of the
1:22cybersecurity stuff that you have to do
1:23when you do pen testing and now it's the
1:26number one open source repo on GitHub.
1:29What does that mean? Well, now anybody
1:31who may not necessarily have a
1:32background in hacking or have a very
1:35small background in hacking can now
1:37enable one of the most powerful AI tools
1:41to exist
1:42to do it all for you. So, you don't even
AI lowering the barrier to hacking
1:45need to know how to hack to allow AI to
1:48hack for you now. This is a big deal. I
1:51felt like this was probably what we like
1:53to call a bad idea.
1:56There's a lot of things we want AI to do
1:58but hacking should be, in my opinion,
2:01that one thing that you just don't do.
Why this might be a “bad idea”
2:04And I thought it was really interesting
2:06too because this has been around for a
2:09little while. If you go all the way back
2:10up to the top, you'll be able to see how
2:12old the commit histories are. So, let's
2:14see.
2:15We got some from 6 months ago. So, the
2:17initial commit, it seems like it was 6
2:19months ago, okay? So, somebody had this
Timeline: built months ago, trending now
2:21idea. They started a repo to work on it,
2:25tested it, got some other contributors
2:27and, you know, they built this tool.
2:30But, if we look at what the last updates
2:32are, what are the most recent updates? 2
2:34days ago, 5 days ago? Well, last week,
Claude code leak connection
2:39what happened? Claude code CLI got
2:41hacked or I got leaked, right? So, the
2:43Claude code CLI code where they use
2:47everything to actually build the Claude
2:49code CLI
2:50got released and people started
2:52inspecting it. They started pointing out
2:54very interesting things about how the
2:55internal system prompting works and all
2:57that. And then now, this is the number
3:00one repo on GitHub.
Agentic AI taking over cybersecurity tasks
3:03And it has been around for 6 months. So,
3:07I'm not here to like make assumptions
3:09but it seems to me that when the Claude
3:13code code base got leaked it definitely
3:16seems to have provided quite a bit of
3:18inspiration to a lot of tools just like
3:20this that were designed to be agentic AI
3:24systems to take over your work. Well, if
3:27your work is penetration testing and
3:28cybersecurity hacking
3:31this AI is going to be able to do it a
3:32lot better. And I can speak to this from
Why AI outperforms human coders
3:34experience. I write code. I'm a
3:35developer. I've been writing code for 5
3:37years now.
3:39Claude code writes code way faster and
3:42way better than I would if I did it
3:43manually. I think we all can agree with
3:45that. I'm not saying anything crazy
3:46here. If you write code and you use
3:48Claude code to write that code for you,
3:50as long as you kind of supervise it and
3:52give it good direction, it is fast and
3:54it is good and it's accurate. It does
3:56very well with what it does. So, if you
3:59take that into cybersecurity right?
Applying AI coding power to hacking
4:03Where you know cybersecurity well,
4:05there's a lot of data out there about
4:07how penetration testing works. There's a
4:10lot of data to be trained on but really,
4:12it's just the interface of how do you
4:13get the AI to take the next best
4:16decision in this task that you're doing.
4:18And if the task you're doing is hacking
4:20you know, it may not be suited for that.
4:22But now, if you have the most popular
4:26coding tool source code leaked and then
4:30you apply that to a cybersecurity
4:32background, you're going to end up with
4:34the most efficient cybersecurity hacking
4:36tool that exists.
Could AI companies shut this down?
4:39Um so, I thought this was very
4:40interesting. I saw it going viral and
4:42it's also even more, you know, relevant
4:45with what we've been talking about
4:46because OpenAI, Claude, Google, like
4:49they may decide like, "Hey, we're going
4:51to ban this. Like, we're not going to
4:52allow any requests that are coming
4:54through that show Shannon or show
4:55anything that has to do with hacking and
4:58penetration testing and all that stuff.
5:00We're just we're not going to do it,
5:01right?" And OpenAI can do that and so
5:03can Anthropic. We saw that when they
5:06said, "Hey, we're not going to allow
5:07Claude to power open Claude anymore."
Open-source models make it unstoppable
5:09They can shut stuff down. They have the
5:11capability to do it. So, if the the big
5:14players get a sense of this and say,
5:16"Hey, this is dangerous. We want we
5:17don't want to allow this to happen. We
5:20don't want to allow our models to be
5:22responsible for hacking and for, you
5:24know, cybersecurity stuff." Well, guess
5:26what? You just released Gemma 4. Gemma 4
5:29is a local model. It can run on a very
5:31small device. It is somewhat comparable
5:34to Codex and all these other models.
5:36This tool is not going anywhere, right?
5:38Like, as long as the GitHub repo stays
5:40open and then those models are still
5:42able to be downloaded, which, you know,
Cheap, scalable AI hackers
5:44cat's out of the bag now. You it's on
5:46Ollama unless Ollama takes it down. This
5:48is going to be possible without needing
5:51any kind of cloud subscription. Like,
5:53now you're going to be able to get very
5:55high-performing
5:57hackers for almost nothing. Yeah, cuz so
Replacing human hackers with AI agents
6:01now instead of like hiring a black hat
6:03hacker or whatever off of the dark webs
6:05or whatever
6:06>> Yeah.
6:06>> [laughter]
6:07>> and paying them in some random
6:09crypto coin. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Oh,
6:11bit crypto. Sorry for everybody who
6:13doesn't know what that is. Um now, you
6:16can deploy an AI agent, this Shannon
6:18from KeyGraph HQ.
6:20You can deploy that to do your dirty
6:22work.
6:22>> What's the other side of this that we
6:24all know is true? There's a million vibe
The rise of insecure “vibe-coded” apps
6:27coded apps out there that have zero
6:29security protocol.
6:31Right? There's a million
6:33different apps out there that people
6:35coded having no background and not even
6:38just development but cybersecurity,
6:40understanding how to secure an app.
6:42There's a bunch of slop out there
6:44basically and now there's another side
6:47to that equation, which is, you know,
6:49the same people that could build an app
6:53in a weekend using AI and vibe coding,
6:55there's also now the ability for those
6:57same people to just go hack a hundred
AI hacking meets weak security
6:59different websites and and get a bunch
7:01of data and and create ransomware and do
7:03all the stuff. So,
7:04yeah, this is I feel like what we like
7:07to call a bad idea.
7:09How could we leave out the vibe coders?
7:11You know, the uh
7:12>> [laughter]
7:12>> Right. Yeah. And like, listen, I
7:16>> uploading API keys to GitHub's
7:18[laughter] software. And like, listen, I
7:20am all about using AI to further the
7:24efficiency and do your job better, okay?
7:26All about it. But when it comes to this,
7:29with cybersecurity, maybe don't make it
7:31open source. Maybe make a sign-up
7:34required. I don't know. Just a crazy
7:36thought. Maybe vet the people a little
7:38bit that you're giving this to. Don't
Should tools like this be restricted?
7:40just watch the world burn. I haven't
7:42used it myself, right? So, I I don't
7:44know. Maybe it's not that good. Maybe it
7:46can't hack that well but
7:48I would say for it to be the number one
7:51GitHub repo of the day
7:53is uh is not something that just happens
7:56for no reason. Right? Like, that takes
7:59quite a bit of interest and traction.
8:02So, Yeah.
8:03Find me all the Claude uh
8:05API keys
8:07>> [laughter]
8:07>> on GitHub. There that's all
8:09their problems. There you go, right
8:11there.
8:12>> [laughter]
Why GitHub popularity matters
8:13>> All that stuff right there.
8:14>> is a list of company websites. Going to
8:16be like, "Here's all the companies that
8:17I know were created with vibe coding cuz
8:19they don't know how to write code. Go
8:21hack them." And this tool can do that.
8:23That's crazy. Like, normally Claude
8:25would be like, "No." Or OpenAI would be
8:27like, "I don't know if I should do
8:28that." But because Shannon creates these
8:32this context of you are a professional
8:34penetration tester, you have been hired
8:37by a company to do all of this
AI exploiting exposed API keys
8:39cybersecurity work the model doesn't
8:42know any better, right? Like, if you ask
8:44OpenAI and Claude with their native
8:46system prompting, of course they're
8:48going to say no. But if you put in a
8:49really good system prompt that is very
8:52clean. I mean, it's kind of the classic
8:54thing of like you know, if it doesn't
8:56want to answer a question, you can
8:57manipulate it by being like, "Oh, I'm a
8:59student and I'm studying this and I have
System prompt manipulation explained
9:01an exam tomorrow and I don't understand
9:03it and I need help." And blah blah. And
9:04it'll just walk through it with you,
9:06right? Same [snorts] thing with this.
9:08You can just be like, "You are a
9:10professional cybersecurity pen tester."
9:11And until the AI companies have a chance
9:14to update the training rules to say
9:17ignore anything that has to do with
9:18cybersecurity, which who knows if they
9:20will, right? Cuz this is still usage for
9:22them. This is still tokens for them. So,
9:24why do they care? It doesn't necessarily
9:26have to be used for evil.
9:28They can have plausible deniability.
9:30They can be like, "Hey, cybersecurity is
9:32a very valid profession. Hundreds of
9:34thousands of people do it. We want them
9:36to be able to get the efficiency of AI
9:38as well." But we talked about this last
9:40week of like there just is not enough
9:42discussion about the regulation of what
“It doesn’t have to be used for evil”
9:45needs to happen with these models,
9:47right? And this is a very clear example.
9:50Last week we were talking about this
9:51lady got misidentified using facial AI
9:54recognition technology, right?
9:56And like, she got arrested. She went to
9:58jail because of this technology that
Lack of AI regulation
10:00that didn't work as well. So,
10:04that was one discussion, but there's no
10:05real regulation around that. So, now
10:07we're talking about pen testing. We're
10:09talking about cybersecurity, and there's
10:10again no discussion about this and about
10:12if this should be banned and if we
10:14should put some regulations around this.
10:16There's been enough examples now where
10:18we can have real-world discussions about
10:21the impacts and what should and should
10:23not be banned. We don't need to put
10:25blanket policies. We don't need to say
10:27everything should be banned above this
10:29size or
10:31you know, if it has this many users or
10:33whatever, like, it should be use cases.
10:35And we have enough AI technology now to
10:37help us with that.
10:39Yeah, you would think like like when I
Final thoughts: who controls AI?
10:41have AI police in the AI at least, you
10:43know?
10:43>> Yeah, at least, right? Like at least
10:45>> [laughter]
10:46>> At least. Hey, David Marolla here, your
10:48host from SaaS 'n' Bash podcast. And if
10:50you enjoyed this video, go ahead and
10:52check out some of our other clips right
10:53here. And you can go ahead and see one
10:56of our other episodes or even clips from
10:58this same episode from SaaS 'n' Bash
11:00podcast. We'll see you on the next one.