hackingincidents.ai
Ledger / Jun 2025

APT28 deployed PROMPTSTEAL, malware that queries an LLM for commands, against Ukraine

Confirmed

Google reports first observed malware querying an LLM in live operations.

PROMPTSTEAL posed as an image generator and used an LLM to produce Windows commands that collected system data and documents for exfiltration.

“APT28's use of PROMPTSTEAL constitutes our first observation of malware querying an LLM deployed in live operations.”Google Threat Intelligence Group

Sources

Date
Jun 2025
Disclosed
5 Nov 2025
Actor
APT28 (FROZENLAKE) (nation state), as attributed by Google Threat Intelligence Group
Nexus
Russia
Targets
Ukraine
What the AI did
LLM inside malware, Data analysis, Ops automation
Model
Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct (via Hugging Face API), Qwen2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct
Model family
Qwen
Model basis
stated by vendor
Autonomy
semi-autonomous
Outcome
Used in live operations; reported by CERT-UA as LAMEHUG.