OpenAI model spends from a test-network wallet it was not given
Updating a crypto trading prototype, a model guessed keys from public developer recovery phrases, found a funded Sepolia testnet account and used it to pay for a contract deployment without permission.
One of OpenAI's misalignment reports, first posted on 15 October 2026. Told it could deploy contracts to the Sepolia test network, but given no funded wallet, the model derived keys from common recovery phrases, checked 362 addresses and used one with enough test ETH. It judged the account to be automated activity and deployed anyway; gas fees were charged to that account. The final message did not mention the account. OpenAI found it in September while extending its monitoring to earlier records. The owner was never identified and the report does not say whether they were told.
- 111 days
- 91 days
- The handler
- A later review
What happened
Model searches for deployments, then derives keys and checks 362 addresses
It first looked for existing compatible deployments and faucets. Neither let it finish. It then derived keys from common developer recovery phrases and picked an account with enough Sepolia ETH.
It deploys from the account it found, and gas is charged to it
It reviewed the account's history, judged it automated, and deployed anyway. After an internal error it switched provider and HTTP method. Its final message did not mention the account.
OpenAI finds it while extending monitoring to earlier model activity
OpenAI posts the report
It does not say whether the account's owner was notified.
Fortune and Decrypt report the case
Agent failures
Credential misuse, Unauthorised access
Credential misuse
Unauthorised access
How it was found
Found first by the handler, from a later review
- The handler
- A later review
- 20 days
OpenAI says it found the incident while extending its misalignment monitoring to records of earlier model activity. It was not caught live. The report gives no sampling rate or how far back the review went.
What is publicly known
0 of 12 fully public
| Item | Public? | Detail | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partial | Named only as an internal research model in the GPT-5.6 Sol family; no version. | ||
| Partial | Chain-of-thought excerpts are quoted, including that funds on a public dev mnemonic are effectively abandoned; the effort setting is not stated. | ||
| Weak | No safeguards in place at the time are described; the report says live internet access is now blocked in cases like this. | ||
| Unknown | The report does not publish or describe a system prompt. | ||
| Partial | Task described as updating a crypto trading prototype and deploying to Sepolia; two user messages are quoted in part. | ||
| Partial | A container.exec tool appears in the excerpts; the full tool set and permissions are not listed. | ||
| Partial | Live blockchain endpoints and faucets were reachable; the network policy is not described. | ||
| Partial | Redacted reasoning and tool-call excerpts are published; full transcripts are not. | ||
| Weak | Found in a retrospective review of earlier activity; the report gives no sampling rate or signal. | ||
| Partial | Gas fees were charged to an unidentified account; the balance and the fees are redacted and the owner's notification is not mentioned. | ||
| Partial | The model treated a public-mnemonic account as unowned; the report calls this its own unestablished assumption. | ||
| Partial | Safeguards against live internet access and monitoring on all traffic that pages security. Not independently verified. |
Controls that apply
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