Microsoft: China-Linked Hackers Ran an AI Agent Framework at Machine Speed

Storm-0940 hit 2,250+ tenants after the ConnectWise breach and reached privileged cloud access in under three hours.

Microsoft ties a supply-chain breach to a China-linked group running an open-source AI attack agent.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence says Storm-0940, an actor it links to the Chinese state and tracks back to 2021, has used ARTEX since as early as September 2026. ARTEX is an open-source agentic penetration-testing framework written in Go and Next.js that can run on any model, Microsoft says.

Microsoft attributes the compromise of ConnectWise’s cloud backup service to the same group. ConnectWise published an advisory on October 16, shut services down on Saturday and began a phased restoration on Wednesday, CyberScoop reports.

Phase	Activity
Oct 10 to 14	Password spray on 327 accounts at 8 organizations; more than 151,000 failed sign-ins, no success
After the ConnectWise compromise	Sign-in attempts against more than 2,250 Microsoft 365 tenants, at 2,900 a minute
Speed	Privileged cloud access in under three hours in multiple cases

From Microsoft’s October 21 report. Microsoft notes a successful sign-in does not necessarily mean data was accessed.

Microsoft’s advice for ConnectWise customers: keep the ConnectWise app connections disabled, and do not delete the enterprise applications first. Review service-principal sign-ins from October 15, ideally from October 1, and check Entra audit logs for new credentials and role changes.

@kimmonismus summed it up: this is “one of the first publicly documented cases in which a state actor has scaled up attacks using AI agents at machine speed.” In a reply, he says he takes Microsoft at its word but has not seen proof yet.

Microsoft: China-Linked Hackers Ran an AI Agent Framework at Machine Speed

Sources