How Mythos Thinks Like A Hacker: Anthropic’s AI Finds 271 Hidden Firefox Flaws

Anthropic’s

Mythos AI has been making headlines since the day it was launched. In the latest episode of cybersecurity, the AI model Preview identified 271 bugs in Mozilla’s Firefox browser during the Firefox 150 cycle. These findings noted several serious flaws that remained hidden inside the browser’s code for years. Mozilla used Anthropic's tool alongside its own internal security system to spot and fix these issues before hackers could potentially exploit them.

Why Mythos Is Gaining Popularity

Anthropic did not release the Mythos AI for all users. Its access has been given to a select group of organisations. The company warned that its Mythos might become helpful and dangerous because of its ability to spot hidden software flaws, including zero-day vulnerabilities. The tech giant described the AI system as a powerful tool to scan massive codebases faster than human developers. Ideally, finding deep software flaws needs experienced professionals. However, Mythos can speed up this process and spot constant patterns in code and can itself act as a hacker to find critical vulnerabilities in software that even companies are not even aware about. This has raised concerns among cybersecurity experts and governments across the world. While the AI model could help strengthen digital safety, experts are concerned that it might also be misused by criminals to spot weaknesses in the software.

Firefox Findings Show The Truth

The report from Mozilla highlights how concerns around Mythos are real. As per the company, previous AI-generated bus reports were often inaccurate and developed extra work for engineers. However, the newer AI models improved at a significant pace. Using Mythos Preview together with its internal testing infrastructure, Mozilla revealed several critical vulnerabilities that the conventional methods failed to catch. One major issue revolved around Firefox’s JIT engine, where an incorrect equality check may leave a Web Assembly structure uninitialised. This could potentially affect arbitrary memory read and write access, a serious security concern. Notably, the report noted that some flaws existed in Firefox for a very long time. The company disclosed a 15-year-old bug. Another hidden bug was spotted by Mythos, who was 20 years old. Overall, Firefox discovered 271 bugs with the help of Mythos. Out of them, 180 were labelled 'severe', 80 as 'moderate' and 11 as 'low severity'. The findings of Mozilla show how Mythos is powerful and could be harmful at the same time. The AI seems capable of discovering deep software vulnerabilities that humans might miss for years. It is noteworthy that the rising use of AI in the cybersecurity world presents an opportunity and a challenge for the coming generations.