According to OpenAI, the company's autonomous cybersecurity system identified 948 distinct Linux privilege-escalation vulnerabilities and developed working exploits on Wednesday. The research cost $1.21 million in API credits, averaging $1,279 per vulnerability, for scanning approximately 2.8 million lines of kernel code.
A newer, unreleased AI model found more than five times as many vulnerabilities as an earlier version tested in July, even after the kernel had undergone months of fixes. OpenAI also noted its agents employed at least 10 exploitation techniques previously unfamiliar to researchers and external experts consulted.