A number of security researchers have reported that OpenAI unexpectedly revoked their access to a specialized program designed to ease restrictions on using its AI tools for cybersecurity research, an issue the company has indicated may stem from an internal error.
On Wednesday, numerous researchers took to OpenAI's official support forums and the social media platform X to announce that their access to the Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) program had been withdrawn. Users described encountering a message on ChatGPT's Cyberpage stating that their identity could not be verified or that their account was "ineligible at this time."
TAC is an exclusive initiative through which OpenAI grants vetted researchers access to its most advanced AI models, featuring fewer cybersecurity safeguards than those available to general users. Anthropic offers a comparable program known as the Cyber Verification Program (CVP).
The fundamental objective behind both TAC and CVP is to equip trusted cybersecurity professionals with superior AI models, enabling them to identify and report bugs and vulnerabilities to companies, thereby facilitating quicker patch deployment. Concurrently, these programs aim to prevent cybercriminals and malicious hackers from leveraging such models to discover flaws and develop exploits for nefarious purposes.
To qualify for TAC, cybersecurity researchers must submit identification and undergo a thorough vetting process by OpenAI.
As of now, the precise reason for these researchers losing their TAC access remains unclear, as does the total number of individuals affected by this problem.
TechCrunch communicated with five researchers who confirmed experiencing this issue. One researcher shared an email from OpenAI, which stated that their access to Daybreak Blue, the most recent vetted tier of TAC, was revoked "due to a technical issue affecting a limited number of users."
The message, shared with TechCrunch, further clarified: "This was an issue on our end, and not the user experience we want to deliver."
Another researcher, in a thread on OpenAI's forums, corroborated this explanation, reporting that after contacting official support, the company also cited a "recent technical issue" as the cause for some users losing access to Daybreak Blue.
In both instances, OpenAI instructed the affected researchers to reapply and complete the verification process anew.
Intriguingly, all researchers interviewed by TechCrunch confirmed they reside outside of the U.S. and Europe, suggesting that these revocations might be geographically localized.
OpenAI did not provide immediate comment regarding the account issues when contacted by TechCrunch.
Daybreak Blue, launched on August 10, represents the latest tier for individual researchers, offering access to "frontier general-purpose models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol, with safeguards tailored to authorized defensive security work," according to OpenAI. It is positioned as the "recommended starting point for most defenders, supporting vulnerability discovery, secure code review, malware analysis, incident response, and patch validation."
Concurrently, OpenAI also introduced Daybreak Red, a higher tier that provides access to models specifically developed for cybersecurity research, enabling vetted users to conduct "authorized vulnerability research, exploit validation, and security testing."
In recent months, both defensive and offensive security researchers have voiced concerns over the stringent "guardrails" implemented by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, arguing that these restrictions impede their ability to perform legitimate security work.
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