AI Pentest Tool ARTEX Turned on IT and Software Vendors in Supply Chain Campaign

Wiz Research says that throughout October 2026 it identified an actor using tooling linked to ARTEX, an autonomous AI penetration-testing agent, against multiple IT and software vendors. The activity centred on identity providers (Okta, Entra and Cognito) and on abuse of Microsoft 365 integrations. Wiz observed repeated attempts to find authentication bypasses, list APIs and reach vendors' customer data. The findings overlap with Microsoft's report on Storm-0940, a Chinese state-aligned actor linked to a supply-chain attack involving stolen vendor credentials and downstream Microsoft 365 tenants. Wiz also saw the same infrastructure, tooling and attack patterns aimed at the wider sector, and the actor trying to extend supply-chain compromises into other software sectors.

ARTEX is an open-source framework published on GitHub in July 2026 by a Chinese developer. An operator gives it a target and an objective. A planner agent then chooses each step, while worker agents run common tools and feed results into a shared map of assets and findings. Attackers adopted it within weeks, and its artifacts appeared in attacks on South Korean banks and Japanese companies. Microsoft and Zscaler have tied it to two separate actors. The developer made it closed-source on 8 October, but by then it had more than 12,000 forks.

Wiz describes a consistent pattern. Attackers first map the application by collecting JavaScript files, exposed source maps, runtime configurations and API documentation to discover internal routes. They then probe authentication by repeatedly starting sign-in flows, manipulating OAuth callbacks and state parameters, testing unsigned tokens, and targeting single sign-on and Microsoft 365 endpoints.