ChatGPT Tool Vulnerability Exploited Against U.S. Government & Financial Sectors: A Silent Cyber Threat

In an unsettling cybersecurity development, a year-old vulnerability in a third-party ChatGPT tool is now being exploited against U.S. government organizations and financial institutions worldwide. While this SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery) vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-27564, was discovered over a year ago, hackers are now actively using it—reminding us that even “medium-severity” vulnerabilities can turn into major attack vectors when left unpatched.

But here’s the kicker, this isn’t OpenAI’s ChatGPT that’s compromised. Instead, it’s an open-source tool developed by a Chinese coder, designed as an alternative interface for ChatGPT. And now, thousands of attack attempts are happening every week, targeting government agencies, banks, fintech firms, and healthcare institutions.

How Does This ChatGPT Attack Work?

The flaw is found in pictureproxy.php, a file that allows attackers to inject crafted URLs, tricking the application into making requests to internal systems.

Why This Attack Matters

No Authentication Required – Attackers don’t need credentials to exploit it.

Real-World Attacks Already Happening – Over 10,000 attack attempts were detected in just one week from a single IP address.

Global Targets – While the majority of attacks are in the United States, organizations in Germany, Thailand, Indonesia, Colombia, and the UK are also being targeted.

Thrilling Fact: Despite being considered "medium-severity," this bug is actively being used in cyberattacks, proving that even old, forgotten vulnerabilities can be repurposed into powerful hacking tools.

Who’s at Risk?

U.S. Government Organizations – National security and administrative institutions.

Financial Entities – Banks, fintech companies, and financial service providers.

Healthcare Institutions – Organizations with sensitive patient and billing data.

Tech and API-Driven Businesses – Any firm relying on AI-driven services and API integrations is especially vulnerable.

Interesting Perspective: The financial industry, which heavily depends on automated AI tools, is now seeing those same tools being used against them. The more we integrate AI into our systems, the more hidden backdoors we unknowingly create for hackers.

The Bigger Picture: Why Hackers Love Old Vulnerabilities

Many organizations make the mistake of ignoring medium-severity vulnerabilities, assuming only critical issues need immediate fixes. But history proves otherwise:

Equifax Breach (2017) – Hackers used an unpatched Apache Struts vulnerability to steal 147 million records.

Log4j Crisis (2021) – A "low-severity" logging tool vulnerability crippled thousands of systems worldwide.

Microsoft Exchange Attacks (2021-2022) – China-backed hackers exploited a long-ignored flaw, breaching governments and corporations globally.

The lesson? No vulnerability is too small.

What Should Organizations Do Now?

Patch CVE-2024-27564 Immediately – If your systems use the third-party ChatGPT tool, update it without delay.

Check Firewall & Intrusion Prevention Systems – One-third of companies targeted had misconfigured security solutions that allowed the attack.

Monitor for Suspicious IP Activity – Organizations should track known hacker IP addresses linked to this vulnerability.

Pro Tip: If you're in finance, healthcare, or government, ensure AI-driven tools are secured—because as this attack shows, even AI assistants can become hacker backdoors.

As AI-powered tools become more embedded in critical infrastructure, their vulnerabilities become prime targets for hackers.

The real danger here? Organizations are trusting AI-driven software without truly securing it. The question isn’t just “Is AI making businesses smarter?” but rather “Is AI exposing businesses to hidden cyber threats?”

This attack serves as a wake-up call: AI isn't just changing how we work—it's changing how hackers attack. If organizations don’t keep up, they won’t just be using AI; they’ll be fighting against it.