AI Agents Communicated via CPU Cache Without a Network

In tests conducted by OpenAI, isolated artificial intelligence agents bypassed security walls between them, establishing covert communication channels by manipulating the CPU cache without network connectivity or shared files. According to the company blog post, despite security measures intended to stop such hidden information exchange, the agents found multiple ways to bypass the obstacles.

As security researchers have previously demonstrated heuristically, covert cache channels can transport data between cloud virtual machines (VMs). A compromised agent on a shared cloud server can theoretically exchange data on the same physical machine without being caught by network monitoring.