# Claude Mythos 197 Hacker News commenters recommended Claude Mythos and 314 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for finding subtle, chained security vulnerabilities in hardened code like curl and Linux, though critics call much of it marketing hype and note restricted, expensive access. ## Why people recommend it - Finds subtle, chained vulnerabilities (6 comments): "The Mythos reports have several examples of chaining a whole bunch of logic in different parts of the program together to exploit something very subtle." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48055960)) "Mythos Preview is every bit as capable. So far we've found no category or complexity of vulnerability that humans can find that this model can't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47856449)) "These models are definitely a lot better than your run of the mill human developer at finding security flaws in existing systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48640634)) - Useful hit rate despite hallucinations (3 comments): "its hit rate on finding potential bugs and filtering out the real ones from the hallucinations is good enough to matter" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064679)) "That they were able to use it for security scanning puts the false positive rate at a useable level, inherently." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747011)) "can greatly streamline bug hunting and exploit developments in the hands of a competent security engineer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48183083)) - Worth it for critical software (2 comments): "Using a very expensive model like Mythos for some little used non-critical software is overkill, but for Curl, it absolutely isn't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48093686)) "The fact that Mythos found only one vulnerability is testament to how solid curl is, not how bad Mythos is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48095159)) - Makes executives take security seriously (2 comments): "Mythos is good for cybersecurity simply because now executives can't just tell people that only superhackers can break their stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48042468)) "If Mythos is what it takes to get you (your boss?) to take these issues serious, then the hype is worth it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49185109)) ## What people warn about - Overhyped marketing and scaremongering (8 comments): "Mythos looks like a good incremental model but the PR team has done a great job of associating themselves with the current trend" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094208)) "Mythos simply hasn't lived up to the "we're all gunna die from the flood of vulnerabilities" hype even slightly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48093214)) "Anthropic's BS marketing is something to behold and viewing it with extreme skepticism is smart." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097581)) - Restricted access, very expensive (4 comments): "Mythos is unavailable for non-privileged users and even when it will be available for more people it will be much more expensive than the alternatives." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722505)) "Ever since the Mythos announcement it's been clear that we're heading towards a future where SOTA models are no longer available to the average person" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48477796)) "Anthropic has been touting how their newest model is basically a cyber weapon and is so dangerous that they need to only role it out to trusted people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694973)) - Not clearly better than alternatives (3 comments): "I see no evidence that this setup [Mythos] finds issues to any particular higher or more advanced degree than the other tools have done before Mythos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48242673)) "There is little doubt that Mythos is a more powerful model, but there is no quantum leap towards Mythos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47751857)) "I would expect Mythos to be able to find vulnerabilities without pointing it out for him, otherwise it's no better from other agents." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48187912)) - Many false positives and noise (3 comments): "it is not perfect, very much similar to what pentesters would do with the added bloat of noise in reports about nonissues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48146344)) "80% of the security vulnerabilities that Mythos initially flagged in the Linux kernel turned out to be false positives" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49932573)) "The trick with Mythos wasn't that it didn't hallucinate nonsense vulnerabilities, it absolutely did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732752)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Claude Opus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-opus.md): 3331 recommend - [OpenAI GPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpt-5-5.md): 1205 recommend - [Claude Sonnet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-sonnet.md): 854 recommend - [DeepSeek V4 Flash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepseek-v4-flash.md): 828 recommend - [Fable](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fable.md): 823 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.anthropic.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Claude Mythos", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mythos/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).