Alignment Incident Database
AID-2026-0069Jun 2026ReportedHuman misuseDraft

Suspected Chinese operators used Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro to break into government systems, Hunt.io reports

In June 2026, operators Hunt.io links to China used Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro as working parts of an intrusion campaign that compromised an Afghan government application, stole Thai government employee data, and exploited two Taiwanese organizations.

Draft: no maintainer has yet checked every claim against its sources. Report a problem.

In June 2026, threat-intelligence firm Hunt.io followed known TencShell command-and-control infrastructure to an open directory exposing an active intrusion campaign1. "Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro ran as working parts of the intrusion, not tools off to the side": Claude Code was the execution engine, handling tool use, bash commands, and session persistence, with DeepSeek-v4-pro as the reasoning model. The models reworked exploits after failed attempts and built phishing pages to harvest credentials. LLM session timestamps span June 8–12, 20261.

The campaign compromised an Afghan government application, exposing citizen complaint submissions and core infrastructure. It hit a Thai government administrative system with SQL injection via SQLMap, bypassing authentication and reaching the admin panel, and exfiltrated a database of government employees' names, National ID numbers, and positions. Two Taiwanese organizations, a chemical manufacturer and a telecom and edge-device maker, were actively exploited, and a CORS exploit page pulled WordPress administrator data from a large payment processing platform1.

Simplified Chinese in the code and documentation and Hong Kong infrastructure point to China-based actors, but Hunt.io stops short of naming a group. Affected organizations and the relevant national CERTs were notified on July 6, 20261.

Measurements

Government hosts scanned by the operators1

>5,890
Government hosts across 10 countries hosts
All 13 claims with their quotes (2 not linked to a sentence above)
  1. Hunt.io says that in June 2026 a pivot from known TencShell C2 infrastructure led it to an open directory exposing an active intrusion campaign.1
    “In June 2026, a pivot from known TencShell C2 infrastructure led us to an open directory exposing an active intrusion”
  2. Hunt.io says Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro were operational components of the intrusion.1
    “Claude Code and DeepSeek-v4-pro ran as working parts of the intrusion, not tools off to the side.”
  3. According to Hunt.io, Claude Code handled execution and session persistence, and DeepSeek-v4-pro handled the reasoning.1
    “Claude Code handled execution and session persistence while DeepSeek-v4-pro drove the reasoning”
  4. Hunt.io says the models handled reasoning for bypass techniques, reworked exploits after failed attempts, and built the phishing pages used to harvest credentials.1
    “They handled reasoning for bypass techniques, reworked exploits after failed attempts,”
  5. Hunt.io says the timestamps of the LLM sessions span June 8-12, 2026.1
    “The timestamps span from June 8 - 12, 2026.”
  6. Hunt.io reports that an Afghan government application was compromised, exposing citizen complaint submissions and core application infrastructure.1
    “exposing both citizen complaint submissions and core application infrastructure.”
  7. Hunt.io reports that a Thai government administrative system was exploited with SQL injection using SQLMap, giving the attackers authentication bypass and admin panel access.1
    “A Thai government administrative system fell victim to a SQL injection exploitation using SQLMap.”
  8. Hunt.io says the exfiltrated Thai database contained the names, National ID numbers, and positions of government employees.1
    “The exfiltrated database contained the names, National ID numbers and positions of government employees.”
  9. Hunt.io says two Taiwanese organizations, a chemical manufacturer and a telecom and edge device manufacturer, went beyond reconnaissance to active exploitation.1
    “Two organizations moved beyond simple recon and to active exploitation,”
  10. Hunt.io says a CORS exploit page built by the attackers extracted WordPress administrator account data from a large payment processing platform.1
    “that successfully extracted WordPress administrator account data from a large payment processing platform.”
  11. Hunt.io reports scanning of more than 5,890 government hosts across 10 countries.1
    “Scanning of 5,890+ government hosts across 10 countries with a Python-developed automated scoring scale.”
  12. Hunt.io says the indicators are consistent with China-based threat actor activity but does not name a group.1
    “though we stop short of naming a group.”
  13. Hunt.io says the affected organizations and the relevant national CERTs were notified on July 6, 2026.1
    “The affected organizations and the relevant national CERTs were notified on July 6, 2026.”

Sources

  1. [1]Suspected Chinese Operators Use Claude Code and DeepSeek to Target Government and Financial Systems Across Four Countries · Hunt.io · Jul 14, 2026 · Research

Editor notes

Single source: all facts come from Hunt.io, and no corroboration by Anthropic, DeepSeek, or the affected CERTs has been found. Date conflict: the visible byline says "Published on Jul 14, 2026", while the page metadata says Oct 9, 2026 6:14 PM UTC. Jul 14 is used because the post says the organizations and CERTs were notified July 6, 2026, and that publication was held for a 7-day window, which fits a mid-July date. The Oct 9 value may be a later update. The incident date is 2026-06 because the intrusion activity and LLM session timestamps fall in June 2026. The models entry uses the generic `claude` because Hunt.io names Claude Code (version 2.1.165) but not the underlying Claude model. Hunt.io gives no count of exfiltrated Thai records. Hunt.io's headline mentions "Four Countries" and financial systems; the fourth country is not detailed in the passages verified here.