activity
20232026
most citedGetting pwn'd by AI: Penetration Testing with Large Language Models

126 citations · 174 across the 16 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

17 papers

cs.SE2026

ATLAS: Discovering Agent Strategies through LLM-Guided Abstraction and Automata Learning

Ignacio D. Lopez-Miguel, Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito +3

Large Language Model (LLM)-based agents are increasingly used for complex tasks such as software testing and cybersecurity assessment. While these agents demonstrate impressive cap…

cs.CR2026

The Ethics of Autonomous AI Agents for Offensive Security

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito, Jasmin Wachter

LLM-driven autonomous agents are reshaping offensive security. Unlike traditional penetration-testing tooling - deterministic, narrowly scoped, and operated by trained practitioner…

cs.SE2026

Reducing Token Usage of State-in-Context Agents using Minification

Nicolas Hrubec, Jürgen Cito

This paper presents a replication and extension of the recently introduced state-in-context agent framework. We independently re-implement the DirectSolve variant and evaluate it o…

cs.CR2026

Enhancing Linux Privilege Escalation Attack Capabilities of Local LLM Agents

Benjamin Probst, Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Cloud-based Large Language Models (LLMs) can perform autonomous penetration-testing sub-tasks such as Linux privilege escalation, but raise security, privacy, and sovereignty conce…

cs.SE2025

Lost in Code Generation: Reimagining the Role of Software Models in AI-driven Software Engineering

Jürgen Cito, Dominik Bork

Generative AI enables rapid "vibe coding" and agentic software engineering, where natural-language prompts yield working software systems. This lowers barriers to software creation…

cs.SE2025

Online and Interactive Bayesian Inference Debugging

Nathanael Nussbaumer, Markus Böck, Jürgen Cito

Probabilistic programming is a rapidly developing programming paradigm which enables the formulation of Bayesian models as programs and the automation of posterior inference. It fa…

cs.SE2025

Adversarial Bug Reports as a Security Risk in Language Model-Based Automated Program Repair

Piotr Przymus, Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Large Language Model (LLM) - based Automated Program Repair (APR) systems are increasingly integrated into modern software development workflows, offering automated patches in resp…

cs.PL2025

Static Factorisation of Probabilistic Programs With User-Labelled Sample Statements and While Loops

Markus Böck, Jürgen Cito

It is commonly known that any Bayesian network can be implemented as a probabilistic program, but the reverse direction is not so clear. In this work, we address the open question…

cs.CR2025★ 1 cited

On the Surprising Efficacy of LLMs for Penetration-Testing

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

This paper presents a critical examination of the surprising efficacy of Large Language Models (LLMs) in penetration testing. The paper thoroughly reviews the evolution of LLMs and…

cs.CR2025

Recognition Without Mitigation: Ethical Frameworks in Autonomous Offensive-LLM Agent Research

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Large language models have moved from advising on offensive security to autonomously conducting it. A growing literature presents agents that execute reconnaissance, exploitation,…

cs.SE2025

The Road to Hybrid Quantum Programs: Characterizing the Evolution from Classical to Hybrid Quantum Software

Vincenzo De Maio, Ivona Brandic, Ewa Deelman +1

Quantum computing exhibits the unique capability to natively and efficiently encode various natural phenomena, promising theoretical speedups of several orders of magnitude. Howeve…

cs.CR2025★ 2 cited

Benchmarking Practices in LLM-driven Offensive Security: Testbeds, Metrics, and Experiment Design

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as a powerful approach for driving offensive penetration-testing tooling. Due to the opaque nature of LLMs, empirical methods are typicall…

cs.CR2025★ 10 cited

Can LLMs Hack Enterprise Networks? Autonomous Assumed Breach Penetration-Testing Active Directory Networks

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Enterprise penetration-testing is often limited by high operational costs and the scarcity of human expertise. This paper investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of using La…

cs.CR2024

Got Root? A Linux Priv-Esc Benchmark

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Linux systems are integral to the infrastructure of modern computing environments, necessitating robust security measures to prevent unauthorized access. Privilege escalation attac…

cs.CR2023★ 15 cited

LLMs as Hackers: Autonomous Linux Privilege Escalation Attacks

Andreas Happe, Aaron Kaplan, Juergen Cito

Penetration-testing is crucial for identifying system vulnerabilities, with privilege-escalation being a critical subtask to gain elevated access to protected resources. Language M…

cs.SE2023★ 20 cited

Understanding Hackers' Work: An Empirical Study of Offensive Security Practitioners

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

Offensive security-tests are a common way to pro-actively discover potential vulnerabilities. They are performed by specialists, often called penetration-testers or white-hat hacke…

cs.CL2023★ 126 cited

Getting pwn'd by AI: Penetration Testing with Large Language Models

Andreas Happe, Jürgen Cito

The field of software security testing, more specifically penetration testing, is an activity that requires high levels of expertise and involves many manual testing and analysis s…