Security researchers at Alphabet Inc.'s Google have stated they believe a cybercrime group utilized artificial intelligence to develop a hacking tool capable of bypassing defense mechanisms in a widely-used software for managing computer systems.

According to a report released on Monday, the scheme was thwarted after Google alerted the tool's developer. The report noted this is the first instance where Google's threat intelligence team has discovered hackers using AI-generated 'zero-day' vulnerabilities in this manner. A zero-day vulnerability refers to a flaw unknown to the developer, leaving defenders no time to patch it before exploitation.

Google stated it is "highly confident" that AI was used to assist in discovering and weaponizing this vulnerability.

The company declined to name the cybercrime group involved, the affected software, or the large language model used in the attempted attack. However, a spokesperson indicated that researchers believe the vulnerability was not generated using Anthropic PBC's Mythos or Google's own Gemini model.

Google did not provide further details on when the vulnerability was discovered, only describing it as "recent."