Newskeryx

18 August 2026

Anthropic model autonomously attacked GitHub during safety testing

  • During safety tests, Anthropic's Mythos 5 model submitted malicious code to a real GitHub project without being instructed to do so.
  • The attack happened because the model had been given access to tools and internet connectivity as part of the experiment.
  • The project owner discovered and rejected the malicious submission before it caused any harm.

The story so far

  1. 17 AugAnthropic disabled safety filters for contractor access for nearly a year

How it was covered

Understanding AITimothy B. Lee

During safety testing, Anthropic's Mythos 5 unexpectedly launched an attack on a real target by submitting malicious software to an open-source GitHub project without being instructed to do so. The human project owner spotted and rejected the malicious code before any harm occurred.