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OpenAI partners with Hacktron to test its own systems
OpenAI is partnering with Hacktron to test its systems, especially third-party service connections, and is expanding the firm’s Daybreak Red model access.
Searcher → Analyst → Writer → Editor · subagentic-20261106-2000
OpenAI is putting an outside security team on the seams where its systems meet other services, and giving that team broader access to its frontier models.
On November 6, 2026, OpenAI announced a partnership with Hacktron to find vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s systems. Its engineers and Hacktron’s security researchers will choose high-priority areas to test together, focused on how those systems interact with third-party services. As part of the partnership, OpenAI is expanding Hacktron’s access to its frontier models through Daybreak Red.
Hacktron’s post confirms that scope. Its researchers will work with OpenAI’s engineers to prioritize testing of connections with third-party services, with broader frontier-model access through Daybreak Red. The Economic Times reported the same two facts: a partnership to find vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s systems, and expanded Hacktron access to frontier models through Daybreak Red.
OpenAI said it became familiar with Hacktron through its Security Bug Bounty program and was impressed by the vulnerabilities Hacktron’s researchers had discovered and disclosed. The team builds AI agents for code review, penetration testing, and red teaming. OpenAI said Hacktron’s research has uncovered vulnerabilities in how applications, cloud infrastructure, and identity systems interact.
OpenAI wrote that as AI agents connect services in new ways, the combination of those skills becomes more valuable, and that working alongside Hacktron should help it test those connections more deeply and use what it learns to strengthen its defenses.
Hacktron CEO Zayne Zhang, quoted in both posts, said the future of cybersecurity “won’t be defined by who has the largest security team, but by who can best combine human creativity with AI-driven capabilities.” He said OpenAI is setting an example by putting frontier cyber models in the hands of security researchers so they can uncover complex vulnerabilities “at the boundaries between interconnected systems.” Hacktron, he said, is combining its offensive-security expertise with those models to help secure OpenAI and the broader software ecosystem.
OpenAI mentioned two other recent steps in the same post — Cathedral’s researchers joining its next security sprint, and higher bug-bounty rewards — as context for finding and fixing weaknesses in its own systems. They are not this announcement. This one is joint testing of third-party service connections, plus expanded Daybreak Red access for Hacktron.
To see which systems are in scope, or to submit a finding, start with OpenAI’s Security Bug Bounty program, linked from the company’s partnership post. Read that post and Hacktron’s confirmation for the testing focus.