Talks

Can AI Do Novel Security Research? Meet the HTTP Terminator

Researcher: James Kettle

Conferences

We all know AI can find bugs. After a decade of research, I asked a harder question: can an autonomous system invent new attack techniques, and use them to hack live websites at scale? Building this sounded like a bad idea, so I did it.

It worked - I'll share an arsenal of new HTTP desync triggers, gadgets, and exploits that compromised banks, security solutions, and government infrastructure. Then I'll trace each discovery chain back through the HTTP Terminator, showing how to turn your personal expertise into an autonomous weapon - and the dark arts required to make it lethal.

I'll also share discoveries from beyond the autonomy horizon - some only reachable with a tight human/AI research loop, and others beyond AI's reach entirely. These include a powerful undisclosed recon technique, and anomalies that hint at new attack classes offering alternative paths to critical impact. I'll analyze the discovery process, sharing detailed experiments that probe the boundaries of what AI can and can't discover.

You'll leave with new exploits from desync triggers to undisclosed attack classes, and a blueprint for turning your instincts into an autonomous research cascade. And yes, I'll open-source the HTTP Terminator.