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AI-Based Penetration Testing Tool Achieves Top Spot on HackerOne Leaderboard

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An AI-powered penetration testing tool developed by XBOW has become the first non-human bug hunter to reach the top of HackerOne's US leaderboard. The tool, demonstrated at Black Hat USA, uses a capture-the-flag (CTF) approach to discover vulnerabilities with a low false-positive rate. XBOW's method involves placing 'canaries' in source code and using AI agents to find them, effectively gamifying the vulnerability discovery process. The tool has identified 285 vulnerabilities on HackerOne this year, including 22 confirmed CVEs and over 650 potential flaws. The success highlights the potential of AI in penetration testing while also addressing the issue of false positives generated by large language models (LLMs).

Timeline

  1. 13.08.2025 16:22 1 articles · 1mo ago

    XBOW's AI Penetration Testing Tool Reaches Top of HackerOne Leaderboard

    In June 2025, XBOW's AI-powered penetration testing tool became the first non-human bug hunter to reach the top of HackerOne's US leaderboard. The tool uses a capture-the-flag (CTF) approach with 'canaries' placed in source code to discover vulnerabilities. It has identified 285 vulnerabilities on HackerOne this year, including 22 confirmed CVEs and over 650 potential flaws. The success highlights the potential of AI in penetration testing while addressing the issue of false positives generated by large language models (LLMs).

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