Microsoft fixes first known zero-click attack on an AI agent

TL;DR: Microsoft has patched a critical zero-click vulnerability in Copilot that allowed remote attackers to automatically exfiltrate sensitive user data simply by sending an email. Dubbed "EchoLeak," the security flaw is being described by cybersecurity researchers as the first known zero-click attack targeting an AI assistant.

EchoLeak affected Microsoft 365 Copilot, the AI assistant integrated across several Office applications, including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams. According to researchers at Aim Security, who discovered the vulnerability, the exploit allowed attackers to access sensitive information from apps and data sources connected to Copilot without any user interaction.

Alarmingly, the malicious email did not contain any phishing links or malware attachments. Instead, the attack leveraged a novel technique known as LLM Scope Violation, which manipulates the internal logic of large language models to turn the AI agent against itself.

Researchers warn that this approach could be used to compromise other Retrieval-Augmented ...