OpenAI brings Hacktron into security testing of connections with third-party services

The work will focus on how OpenAI’s systems interact with third-party services. Hacktron will also receive expanded access to OpenAI’s frontier models through Daybreak Red. OpenAI says it became familiar with Hacktron through its Security Bug Bounty program, where the company’s researchers discovered and disclosed vulnerabilities.

The partnership establishes closer collaboration between those researchers and OpenAI’s engineering teams. Zayne Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Hacktron, says: “The future of cybersecurity won’t be defined by who has the largest security team, but by who can best combine human creativity with AI-driven capabilities.” Testing the boundaries between connected systems Hacktron builds AI agents for code review, penetration testing and red teaming. Its research has examined weaknesses involving interactions between applications, cloud infrastructure and identity systems.

Those connections are central to the new partnership. OpenAI says AI agents are connecting services in new ways, increasing the value of testing how systems behave together. Hacktron’s published account of earlier OpenAI research describes chaining two bugs to reach ChatGPT and Codex accounts belonging to OpenAI employees in under 72 hours.

The company says it demonstrated the access using a harmless pull request. The new announcement focuses on planned testing and expanded research access. Zhang says: “OpenAI is setting a strong example by putting frontier cyber models in the hands of security researchers, enabling them to uncover complex vulnerabilities at the boundaries between interconnected systems.” Independent researchers join OpenAI’s wider security work The Hacktron agreement accompanies other changes to OpenAI’s security research arrangements.

OpenAI has also announced that Cathedral researchers will work alongside its teams during its next security sprint. Separately, it has increased bug bounty rewards to encourage independent researchers to pursue weaknesses that internal testing may have missed. The announcements bring external researchers into both coordinated testing and the existing vulnerability-reporting program.

OpenAI’s stated aim is to apply frontier AI to finding and fixing weaknesses within its own systems alongside its broader cyber defense work. Researchers can check which systems are in scope and submit findings through OpenAI’s Security Bug Bounty program on Bugcrowd. ETIH Innovation Awards 2027 open for entries The ETIH Innovation Awards 2027 are now open for entries, with 26 categories recognising companies, institutions, projects and individuals making a measurable impact across education technology.

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