PoeLLM malware hides C2 in AI poem, infects 3,000+ AI servers

A financially motivated, suspected Italian actor dubbed the 'Canto Incognito' campaign used an AI-written poem posted on GitHub to hide command-and-control IP addresses, compromising over 3,000 internet-facing servers running vulnerable LiteLLM, Ollama, Gotenberg, Gitea and Ivanti Sentry deployments for cryptomining and botnet expansion.

Occurred 13 April 2026 · Disclosed 7 October 2026 · Record updated 7 October 2026

Impact

Over 3,000 servers, primarily in the US and Western Europe, were compromised via vulnerable internet-facing AI infrastructure (LiteLLM, Ollama, Gotenberg, Gitea, Ivanti Sentry) and enrolled in a cryptomining and scanning botnet.

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Incidents

Malware hides its C2 address inside an AI-written poem

Lumen's Black Lotus Labs says the PoeLLM malware has infected more than 3,000 internet-facing AI servers since April, mining cryptocurrency on stolen GPUs.

7 Oct 2026

Sources

theregister.comhttps://theregister.com/security/2026/10/07/poetry-is-the-new-ai-security-threat-as-poellm-malware-infects-3k-servers/5301672