Security researcher uses AI tool Claude to discover ticketing vulnerability affecting major US music festivals

Fears about AI tools capable of autonomous hacking usually involve nightmare scenarios like the theft of nuclear launch codes or zeroed-out bank reserves. Far more plausible, it turns out, is asking AI to gain super-administrator access on a ticketing website and then issuing yourself and all of your friends free VIP backstage passes to Bonnaroo.

The AI didn't just find the vulnerability — it walked Carroll through the entire exploitation process, step by step, like a patient tutor who also happens to be very good at breaking into things.

This is the kind of attack that keeps security engineers up at night: not the exotic zero-day, but the mundane misconfiguration that, in the wrong hands, becomes a skeleton key.