According to findings from SlashNext, a new generative AI cybercrime tool called WormGPT has been advertised on underground forums as a way for adversaries to launch sophisticated phishing and business email compromise attacks.

In the hands of a bad actor, tools like WormGPT could be a powerful weapon, especially as OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Bard are increasingly taking steps to combat the abuse of large language models to fabricate convincing phishing emails and generate malicious code.

The fact that WormGPT operates without any ethical boundaries underscores the threat posed by generative AI, even permitting novice cybercriminals to launch attacks swiftly and at scale without having the technical wherewithal to do so.

Making matters worse, threat actors are promoting “Jailbreaks” for ChatGPT, engineering specialized prompts and inputs that are designed to manipulate the tool into generating output that could involve disclosing sensitive information, producing inappropriate content, and executing harmful code.

“Generative AI can create emails with impeccable grammar, making them seem legitimate and reducing the likelihood of being flagged as suspicious,” Kelley said.

“The use of generative AI democratizes the execution of sophisticated BEC attacks. Even attackers with limited skills can use this technology, making it an accessible tool for a broader spectrum of cybercriminals.”