OpenAI has rolled out a limited preview of its latest **GPT-5.6** models: **Sol**, **Terra**, and **Luna**. This release is part of an ongoing engagement with the U.S. government, offering enhanced capabilities for cybersecurity professionals. **GPT-5.6 Sol** stands as the flagship model, boasting the highest power, while **Terra** strikes a balance between efficiency and performance. **Luna** is fine-tuned for speed and cost-effectiveness. "**GPT‑5.6 Sol** launches with our most robust safety stack to date. We strengthened protections for higher-risk activity, sensitive cyber requests, and repeated misuse, and spent multiple weeks finding weaknesses, pressure-testing our system, and hardening it against real-world attacks," **OpenAI** stated.  ### Advancing Cybersecurity Capabilities The models are positioned as highly capable tools for cybersecurity, particularly in vulnerability research and exploitation. **OpenAI** noted that **GPT‑5.6 Sol** performs competitively with **Anthropic Mythos Preview** on **ExploitBench**, an internal framework, using significantly fewer output tokens. The core objective is to facilitate legitimate work such as code review, vulnerability research, patch development, debugging, security education, and defensive testing. Simultaneously, **OpenAI** is implementing strong guardrails to block offensive activities and quickly address newly discovered jailbreaks, including adversarial attempts to circumvent safeguards against "prohibited cyber assistance." "As these capabilities continue to advance, our priority is to make sure they reach and benefit defenders, who can use these tools to find weaknesses, develop patches, and strengthen systems more broadly," the AI company explained. ### Navigating the Dual-Use Dilemma **OpenAI** acknowledges the "dual-use" nature of this technology, warning that during the preview phase, users might encounter safeguards that block legitimate requests or pause them for additional review. This is a direct consequence of the models' advanced capabilities, which, while beneficial for defense, could also be misused. According to **OpenAI**'s **GPT-5.6 Preview System Card**, despite the model's enhanced ability to find code vulnerabilities and develop exploits, it is not designed to carry out autonomous, end-to-end attacks against hardened targets or weaponize cyber vulnerabilities in real-world attacks.  "Separate evaluations examined misaligned behavior in agentic coding tasks and found **GPT-5.6** shows a greater tendency than **GPT-5.5** to go beyond the user's intent, including by taking or attempting actions that the user had not asked for, though absolute rates remain low," the report highlighted. An evaluation of **GPT-5.6 Sol** using VulnLMP, **OpenAI**'s internal framework for testing end-to-end exploit chain development, revealed that the model could produce credible memory safety leads, some of which could lead to disclosure, mutation, or control flow corruption. This suggests a growing automation potential in real-world vulnerability research when AI models are integrated with tool use, build systems, and verification infrastructure. ### Broader Context and Government Engagement **OpenAI** plans to make **GPT‑5.6 Sol**, **Terra**, and **Luna** generally available in the coming weeks, following this limited preview with the U.S. government and a small group of approved trusted partners. This staggered release follows closely on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump's recent executive order on AI and cybersecurity. The order calls for a framework to evaluate AI models' capabilities and identify "covered frontier models" – AI systems with advanced cyber capabilities. Earlier this month, **OpenAI** also released an improved version of its **GPT‑5.5‑Cyber** model to trusted defenders as part of the Daybreak initiative and launched "Patch the Planet," a collaboration with **Trail of Bits** to secure open-source projects. This development also aligns with the U.S. government's decision to permit **Anthropic** to release its **Mythos AI model** to a group of approximately 100 trusted companies and federal agencies operating and defending critical infrastructure. This move came after the powerful cybersecurity-focused models were temporarily pulled from the market. **Anthropic** confirmed the restoration of access, stating on X, "We're restoring access for these organizations quickly, and we're continuing to work with the government to expand access to **Mythos 5** and make **Fable 5** available for general use again."