The motive wasn't the money — it was a 'distillation attack' to clone the models

OpenCode described the breach not simply as theft of billing credits, but as a large-scale distillation attack. In that framing, leaked API keys are valuable because they let actors — including those in countries with restricted access to American models — generate the high volume of outputs needed to train or clone another model from a frontier model's responses.

Coverage noted that some sceptics called that framing an overstretch, arguing the incident looks like a straightforward breach and that use of the keys for distillation remains unproven. OpenCode did not specify how the attackers gained access. Co-founder Dax Raad clarified the exposure was limited to Console workspaces, and that the open-source application and command-line tool were not affected.