{"id":15581,"date":"2025-09-03T07:50:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=15581"},"modified":"2025-09-03T07:50:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:50:32","slug":"indirect-prompt-injection-attacks-against-llm-assistants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581","title":{"rendered":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-03T12:19:49&#8243;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Really good research on practical attacks against LLM agents.\\n\\n\\u003e \\&#8221;Invitation Is All You Need! Promptware Attacks Against LLM-Powered Assistants in Production Are Practical and Dangerous\\&#8221;\\n\\u003e \\n\\u003e **Abstract:** The growing integration of LLMs into applications has introduced new security risks, notably known as Promptware\u00ad&#8211;maliciously engineered prompts designed to manipulate LLMs to compromise the CIA triad of these applications. While prior research warned about a potential shift in the threat landscape for LLM-powered applications, the risk posed by Promptware is frequently perceived as low. In this paper, we investigate the risk Promptware poses to users of Gemini-powered assistants (web application, mobile application, and Google Assistant). We propose a novel Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA) framework to assess Promptware risks for end users. Our analysis focuses on a new variant of Promptware called Targeted Promptware Attacks, which leverage indirect prompt injection via common user interactions such as emails, calendar invitations, and shared documents. We demonstrate 14 attack scenarios applied against Gemini-powered assistants across five identified threat classes: Short-term Context Poisoning, Permanent Memory Poisoning, Tool Misuse, Automatic Agent Invocation, and Automatic App Invocation. These attacks highlight both digital and physical consequences, including spamming, phishing, disinformation campaigns, data exfiltration, unapproved user video streaming, and control of home automation devices. We reveal Promptware\u2019s potential for on-device lateral movement, escaping the boundaries of the LLM-powered application, to trigger malicious actions using a device\u2019s applications. Our TARA reveals that 73% of the analyzed threats pose High-Critical risk to end users. We discuss mitigations and reassess the risk (in response to deployed mitigations) and show that the risk could be reduced significantly to Very Low-Medium. We disclosed our findings to Google, which deployed dedicated mitigations.\\n\\nDefcon talk.  News articles on the research.\\n\\nPrompt injection isn&#8217;t just a minor security problem we need to deal with. It&#8217;s a fundamental property of current LLM technology. The systems have no ability to separate trusted commands from untrusted data, and there are an infinite number of prompt injection attacks with no way to block them as a class. We need some new fundamental science of LLMs before we can solve this.&#8221;,&#8221;published&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-03T11:00:47&#8243;,&#8221;modified&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-02T16:09:16&#8243;,&#8221;type&#8221;:&#8221;schneier&#8221;,&#8221;title&#8221;:&#8221;Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants&#8221;,&#8221;source&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;references&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;id&#8221;:&#8221;SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B&#8221;,&#8221;bulletinFamily&#8221;:&#8221;blog&#8221;,&#8221;cwe&#8221;:null,&#8221;cvelist&#8221;:[],&#8221;sourceData&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;sourceHref&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvss&#8221;:{&#8220;score&#8221;:0,&#8221;severity&#8221;:&#8221;NONE&#8221;,&#8221;vector&#8221;:&#8221;NONE&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;NONE&#8221;},&#8221;cvss2&#8243;:{},&#8221;cvss3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvssV3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;}},&#8221;href&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.schneier.com\/blog\/archives\/2025\/09\/indirect-prompt-injection-attacks-against-llm-assistants.html&#8221;,&#8221;category_name&#8221;:&#8221;News&#8221;,&#8221;post_link&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;product&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vendor&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_description&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_severity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_vendor&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_product&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_score&#8221;:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-03T12:19:49&#8243;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Really good research on practical attacks against LLM agents.\\n\\n\\u003e \\&#8221;Invitation Is All You Need! Promptware Attacks Against LLM-Powered Assistants in Production Are Practical and Dangerous\\&#8221;\\n\\u003e&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,8,12,13,33,114,7,11,5],"class_list":["post-15581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_news","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-exploit","tag-news","tag-none","tag-schneier","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-03T12:19:49&#8243;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Really good research on practical attacks against LLM agents.nnu003e &#8221;Invitation Is All You Need! Promptware Attacks Against LLM-Powered Assistants in Production Are Practical and Dangerous&#8221;nu003e...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zero redgem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"invoker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"invoker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"invoker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fbfeae8dfad117ac08a7621bee1a1dca\"},\"headline\":\"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"CVE\",\"CVSS\",\"exploit\",\"news\",\"NONE\",\"schneier\",\"Security\",\"tapic\",\"Vulnerability\"],\"articleSection\":[\"category_news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581\",\"name\":\"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?p=15581#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"zero redgem\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"zero redgem\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"width\":191,\"height\":188,\"caption\":\"zero redgem\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fbfeae8dfad117ac08a7621bee1a1dca\",\"name\":\"invoker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"invoker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/zero.redgem.net\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem","og_description":"{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;2025-09-03T12:19:49&#8243;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Really good research on practical attacks against LLM agents.nnu003e &#8221;Invitation Is All You Need! Promptware Attacks Against LLM-Powered Assistants in Production Are Practical and Dangerous&#8221;nu003e...","og_url":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581","og_site_name":"zero redgem","article_published_time":"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00","author":"invoker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"invoker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581"},"author":{"name":"invoker","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#\/schema\/person\/fbfeae8dfad117ac08a7621bee1a1dca"},"headline":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B","datePublished":"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581"},"wordCount":483,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#organization"},"keywords":["CVE","CVSS","exploit","news","NONE","schneier","Security","tapic","Vulnerability"],"articleSection":["category_news"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581","url":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581","name":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B - zero redgem","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-03T07:50:32+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=15581#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants_SCHNEIER:2BFE3020536A1FBB9F63197CE4610F0B"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/","name":"zero redgem","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#organization","name":"zero redgem","url":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","width":191,"height":188,"caption":"zero redgem"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/#\/schema\/person\/fbfeae8dfad117ac08a7621bee1a1dca","name":"invoker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f17c01d7338e6932bcde121cf83569393df3374625d25afd62677cfb528f2e3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"invoker"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/zero.redgem.net"],"url":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}