METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research)

A vibe-coded orchestration tool on a researcher's personal AWS instance failed open, silently disabling authentication and parking a METR API key on the public internet; an attacker took the key, added SSH persistence, and burned roughly $600,000 in credits over three weeks. The security perimeter ended where an employee's own cloud account began. Authentication that fails open isn't a control; it's an embossed invitation. As for the May incident, METR learned at the time it was being targeted by attackers potentially seeking financial gain or access to advanced AI models; the organization described this as a "sustained external attack campaign." The attackers used agents to automate reconnaissance and vulnerability discovery, including credential stuffing, OAuth-related attacks, scanning for newly deployed services, and phishing attempts.