Case microsoft-coral-sleet-agenticState actor AI opsWorldwide
Microsoft: North Korea's Coral Sleet runs agentic AI workflow from lures to payload tests
Microsoft reported Coral Sleet (formerly Storm-1877) using agentic AI for end-to-end lure building, infrastructure provisioning and payload testing, jailbreaking LLMs for malicious code, with AI markers in OtterCookie.
HighAttack using AIStatus: OngoingVerified case file
Open in the interactive mapCite this case
- Reported
- Mar 6, 2026
- Location
- Worldwide
- Target
- Developers and crypto firms targeted by DPRK lures
- Severity
- High
- Triggered by
- Coral Sleet / Storm-1877 (North Korea)
- Actor type
- State-sponsored
- Reported loss
- None reported
- CVE
- None
What happened
Microsoft reported Coral Sleet (formerly Storm-1877) using agentic AI for end-to-end lure building, infrastructure provisioning and payload testing, jailbreaking LLMs for malicious code, with AI markers in OtterCookie.
Impact: Rapid capability growth in DPRK malware such as OtterCookie; victim counts not published.
Who triggered it
Actor: Coral Sleet / Storm-1877 (North Korea)
Attribution: Microsoft Threat Intelligence attributes Coral Sleet to North Korea with high confidence.
Motive: Financial theft and espionage for the DPRK
How it happened
Attack vector: Agentic AI tools for fake company websites, remote infrastructure and iterative malware reimplementation
Root cause: Jailbroken LLM coding tools plus development platforms give the actor scalable, refreshable infrastructure
Timeline
- OtterCookie sample with AI-assisted code markers observed by Microsoft
- Microsoft publishes AI as tradecraft report naming Coral Sleet
Response
Actor profile and detections in Microsoft Defender; jailbreak detection via Prompt Shields.
Current status: Ongoing
Sources (open in a new tab)
- Microsoft Security Blog microsoft.com
- SecureWorld coverage secureworld.io
- CSA research note labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org
Cite this case
Microsoft: North Korea's Coral Sleet runs agentic AI workflow from lures to payload tests. AI Threat Watch, case microsoft-coral-sleet-agentic, Mar 6, 2026. https://aithreat.io/cases/microsoft-coral-sleet-agentic/
Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/microsoft-coral-sleet-agentic/