Claude Opus 4.6 Used to Write Working Chrome V8 Exploit Chain for $2,283

The Register·high signal

Security researcher s1r1us (Hacktron CTO) used Opus 4.6 to develop a full exploit chain targeting CVE-2026-5873 in Chrome 138's V8 engine, escaping the V8 sandbox entirely. The project consumed 2.3B tokens, $2,283 in API costs, and ~20 hours of manual guidance. The model behaved as a capable but inconsistent assistant — not autonomous, but dramatically faster than solo exploit development.