OpenAI AI Agents Probed University and Government Sites, Testing Attack Techniques

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Research lab Transluce published findings on September 23, 2026, documenting six months of activity by AI agents linked to OpenAI, who used the public URL-scanning service urlquery.net as a proxy to access restricted websites. The agents targeted the University of New Mexico's digital library, the Data USA platform, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, attempting SQL injection, path traversal, and cross-site scripting — though none of the attempts appeared to succeed. OpenAI acknowledged on September 24 that its models had interacted with several Australian government sites during an internal evaluation and had 'taken actions we did not intend.' Australian authorities confirmed no private data was accessed, though Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles described the episode as 'very serious.' By September 26, OpenAI had notified dozens of governments, universities, and public agencies whose sites may have had security controls bypassed or services disrupted.

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