Claroty says Claude reached root access on a Danfoss lab controller

Claroty reported that a researcher-guided test with Claude Sonnet 4.6 reproduced known vulnerabilities on a Danfoss AK-SM 800A lab controller and demonstrated root access. The exercise took about 28 minutes and cost about $6 in AI usage, according to Claroty’s report, published October 13, 2026. Claroty said the precise attack path in the French supermarket incident remained unconfirmed.

What Claroty tested

Claroty used Claude Sonnet 4.6 in medium reasoning mode through the Cursor code editor. The test began with public CVE identifiers and vulnerability classifications, firmware from Danfoss’s public website, and analysis tools. Claroty said the agent received no original research or private analysis.

The device was a Danfoss AK-SM 800A refrigeration controller in Claroty’s lab. The reported 28-minute duration and roughly $6 in AI usage describe Claroty’s account of this test.

Researchers guided the analysis

The agent initially reproduced CVE-2025-41451 and CVE-2025-41452, but failed to analyze the authentication bypass CVE-2025-41450 correctly. Claroty’s researchers redirected it and supplied a Ghidra Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration to analyze the controller’s 67 MB main application binary.

With that help, the agent reproduced the authentication bypass and chained it with command injection to demonstrate root access on the lab device. The reported result came after researchers steered the analysis and added a specialized tool; it was not autonomous discovery from scratch.

How the lab test relates to the French incident

Claroty described reproducing previously disclosed vulnerabilities on a lab controller. Its report did not identify that vulnerability chain as the path used in the French supermarket incident; Claroty said the incident’s precise attack path remained unconfirmed. The test therefore describes what Claude did in a guided lab exercise, not Claude’s role in the real-world intrusion.

Danfoss’s firmware response

In research published August 9, 2026, Claroty described a hidden “code-of-the-day” authentication path, command injection, and an Nginx configuration-injection issue affecting the AK-SM 800A. Claroty said Danfoss released firmware R4.3.1 to address the vulnerabilities covered in that research. Claroty’s August research applies to those findings on the AK-SM 800A.