Security1 publisher2 min readPublished
Carbonato worms across unauthenticated Docker hosts to plant a Telegram-run AI agent
ThreatDown says the Carbonato worm breaks into Docker daemons open on port 2375 and installs the open-source Hermes AI agent, then rescans nearby networks every five minutes to spread. An operator drives each infected host over Telegram.
The Watch · Security desk
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What happened
- The implant overwrites Hermes' SOUL.md persona with a prompt casting the agent as a 'senior hacker' named GH0ST that runs any operation the operator asks without moral or ethical restrictions.
- Once it finds a host, Carbonato launches a privileged container to run commands on the underlying system and establish remote access.
- A shell script opens a reverse SSH tunnel from the victim to a relay in Costa Rica, installs an SSH server with the operators' key, and reports the new box over Telegram.
- ThreatDown found the operation through an unauthenticated Docker registry public since May 2026, whose staged data also held a separate campaign pushing trojanized crypto wallet apps.
- It masquerades as a system component and keeps itself alive with cron jobs and watchdog scripts that relaunch the implant if the files are deleted.
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Why it matters
- capability The payload is a free, off-the-shelf AI agent installed unchanged. The operator gets an implant that improvises per host without having to build custom malware.
- exposure The persona's stated first priority is AI API keys and other credentials. That turns a single compromised host into a route into the owner's cloud and model accounts.
- precedent Carbonato shows a routine Docker misconfiguration is now enough to deliver a self-directing AI operator. I'd expect more automated intrusions built the same way.
The AI part runs as a loop. The agent reads a task from Telegram and forwards it to a large language model gateway. The model writes the terminal commands. The agent runs them on the host and returns the output to the operator over Telegram [11].
Carbonato has not been attributed to a known threat actor. ThreatDown said language, timezone, and infrastructure clues place the operators in Costa Rica [12].
It is not the only Hermes Agent operation on record this year. In July 2026, Palo Alto Networks linked a China-based actor it tracks as knaithe, or KnYuan, to an AI-enabled campaign that used DeepSeek through the Hermes Agent framework. Taking instructions over Telegram, it enumerated targets, sourced exploit tools, and launched attacks without human intervention [13].
The same month, Hunt.io described attackers running Hermes Agent in unattended "YOLO" mode against Thailand's Ministry of Finance and breaching multiple systems [14]. "The combination is what stands apart: an AI agent coordinating the work, a cross-platform implant holding access, and scripts written for this specific target," Hunt.io said [15].
Last week, Gambit Security reported a Chinese-speaking, financially motivated operator running three open-source AI harnesses against hundreds of online retailers. Since July 2026, the operator has compromised at least 27 companies, stolen more than 600,000 credit card records from two of them, and injected skimmer scripts into five stores [16].
What to watch
- Whether researchers tie Carbonato's Costa Rica-based operators to a named group or link it to the wallet-app campaign in the same registry.
- Whether the unauthenticated Docker registry public since May 2026 is taken down or yields more staged operations.
- Whether Hermes Agent maintainers or the LLM gateway providers move to block the GH0ST-style jailbreak persona.