{
  "id": 12689864,
  "title": "Poetry is the new AI security threat as PoeLLM malware infects 3K+ servers",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/poetry-is-the-new-ai-security-threat-as-poellm-malware-infects-3k",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-07T16:01:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/07/poetry-is-the-new-ai-security-threat-as-poellm-malware-infects-3k-servers/5301672"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A suspected Italian cybercriminal has infected over 3,000 servers with a malware known as PoeLLM since April. The malware targets enterprise AI infrastructure to mine cryptocurrency and expand its botnet. This is the first documented case of \"adversarial poetry,\" a technique that turns harmful prompts into poems to trick large language models (LLMs) into bypassing safety guardrails. The attackers may have used a poem as a \"perfect vehicle for hiding an important message\" that remains unnoticed by security professionals. PoeLLM malware has been active primarily in the US and Western Europe, scanning for vulnerable internet-facing versions of LiteLLM, Ollama, Gotenberg, and Gitea. The malware abuses these open-source tools and can turn compromised systems into vulnerability scanners and exploit servers. The threat originates from an Italian-speaking criminal, named Canto Incognito, whose GitHub repository contains a poem titled \"On the Nature of Connection.\" The poem contains hidden commands that the malware uses to discover new command-and-control (C2) servers. As enterprises increasingly use AI in their operations, the attack surface grows, making them more vulnerable to such threats.",
  "summary": "Quoth the LLM, 'More and more'",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "title": "Poetry is the new AI security threat as PoeLLM malware infects 3K+ servers",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/poetry-is-the-new-ai-security-threat-as-poellm-malware-infects-3k-12694422",
        "published": "2026-10-07T16:01:08.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}