AI Agents Gone Rogue? Build, Defend & Attack AI-Enabled Apps • Katie Paxton-Fear • YOW! 2025
This presentation was recorded at YOW! 2025. #GOTOcon #YOW https://yowcon.com Katie Paxton-Fear - Occasional Bug Bounty Hunter and Educational YouTuber @InsiderPhD ORIGINAL TALK TITLE AI Agents Gone Rogue? Building, Defending & Attacking AI-Enabled Apps • Katie Paxton-Fear RESOURCES https://bsky.app/profile/insider.phd https://twitter.com/InsiderPhD https://github.com/InsiderPhD https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiepf https://insider.phd Links https://xbow.com/blog/xbow-akamai-cloudtest-xxe ABSTRACT The rise of AI agents promises a new era of automation and intelligence, but what happens when these powerful entities are weaponised? This talk dives into the chilling reality of "hackbots", the sinking of vibe coded apps and ship-it mentality and the iceberg that is the emerging AI attack surface, that we are only just seeing the tip of. If you feel overwhelmed about AI security and you’re not sure where to even begin with AI agents, this talk will cover everything you need to know about how AI agents are being employed, hacked and exploited with real examples of real attacks, vulnerabilities and issues. [...] TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 02:54 What are Al agents? 04:51 How do AI agents work? 06:56 Making agentic Al work 07:40 Agenda: What happens when AI agents don't follow the script? 08:19 1. Socially engineering agents 13:47 2. Hacking agentic frameworks 16:49 3. Malicious agents in the loop 20:53 4. Al as the accidental insider 24:57 5. Hackbots 28:58 6. The future? 30:47 Outro Read the full abstract here: https://yowcon.com/brisbane-2025/sessions/3910 RECOMMENDED BOOKS Katharine Jarmul • Practical Data Privacy • https://amzn.to/3OafC3m Adib Saikali & Laurentiu Spilca • Software Security for Developers • https://amzn.to/4aPhqu0 Liz Rice • Container Security • https://amzn.to/3oU4iJe Aaron Parecki • OAuth 2.0 Simplified • https://amzn.to/2A3IMOf https://bsky.app/profile/gotocon.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.instagram.com/goto_con https://www.facebook.com/GOTOConferences #AIAgents #Cybersecurity #Security #Hackbots #s1ngularity #AIAttack #AISecurity #InsiderPHD #VibeCoding #KatiePaxtonFear #YOWcon CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel to get early access to videos & other perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech Sign up for updates and specials at https://gotopia.tech/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences/?sub_confirmation=1