LLMs in Cybersecurity: The Overconfident Sidekick You Didn’t Ask For
Not all large language models (LLMs) are created equal when it comes to bug hunting. While commercial LLMs excel at finding simple vulnerabilities, they often stumble over complex tasks. Tailor-made systems remain the best bet for experts, as general-purpose LLMs might mislead overconfident, tech-savvy criminals.
Hot Take:
AI might be the future of cybersecurity, but these general-purpose large language models (LLMs) are like a Swiss Army knife with no blade – versatile but not exactly sharp enough for the job. While they can point out vulnerabilities like that friend who tells you you have spinach in your teeth, they’re not going to win any hacker Oscars for complex exploits. So, until AI becomes the cyber equivalent of a ninja, experts will still need to bring their A-game (and their own swords).
Key Points:
– General-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are useful but not fully effective for complex exploit creation.
– Non-specialized LLMs can aid non-experts in simple vulnerability research but mislead them with overconfidence.
– Only a few LLMs could tackle complex vulnerabilities and exploit tasks successfully.
– Tailor-made AI systems are advancing rapidly in finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.
– Human oversight remains crucial as AI systems still “hallucinate” and miss context in offensive security tasks.