Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 3 hrs ago
Hackers breach German web host through AI assistant connection tool
Hackers breached German web host Mittwald in an attack the company disclosed over the weekend.
Mittwald, based in North Rhine-Westphalia, provides hosting services for web agencies and website management through its mStudio platform.
The attackers exploited a flaw in a tool that lets customers connect AI assistants to their accounts.
The breach affected 56 customer projects, and the attacker went undetected for eight days.
Mittwald says its logs suggest the attacker may have used AI tools, but it has not provided other evidence, and it is unclear whether the flaw was in Mittwald's code or open-source software.
Forensic experts are investigating, and the company says it found no further attacker activity as of Friday and informed the relevant authorities.
Mittwald plans to publish a detailed account next week after its analysis and recovery work are complete.
Hackers breached German web hosting provider Mittwald CM Service through a flaw in a tool connecting AI assistants to customer accounts.
The company said 56 customer projects were compromised and the attacker went undetected for eight days.
Managing director Robert Meyer said logs suggested the attacker used AI tools, but the company provided no other evidence of AI involvement.
Mittwald said that as of Friday it could detect no further attacker activity after forensic evaluations and repeated system scans.
The company said external IT forensic experts were supporting its analysis and that it had informed the relevant authorities.
- Who
- Hackers allegedly assisted by AI breached Mittwald CM Service.
- What
- They exploited a flaw in the company’s MCP server and compromised 56 customer projects.
- When
- The attacker was undetected for eight days. Mittwald disclosed the breach over the weekend.
- Where
- Mittwald CM Service, a web hosting provider based in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
- Why
- The attackers exploited a flaw in the MCP server; their motive is not stated.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The attacker first tested the MCP flaw amid a global effort to apply patches for PHP2Shell.
The attacker remained undetected on Mittwald’s systems.
Mittwald disclosed the breach in a blog post.
After forensic evaluations and repeated system scans, Mittwald said it could detect no additional attacker activity.
- Affected projects
- 56 customer projects
- Time undetected
- Eight days
- Company
- Mittwald CM Service
- Location
- North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Compromised tool
- Model Context Protocol server used to connect AI assistants to mStudio
What people are saying
the attacker disguised his access attempts and carried out various diversionary tactics.
in some cases, only seconds passed between steps that would take significantly longer for a human attacker.
AI attacks will become more frequent in the future.