Prompt Injection
A security vulnerability where malicious instructions are inserted into AI prompts to manipulate the model's behavior, bypass safety guidelines, or extract sensitive information. A critical concern for production AI systems.
Prompt injection attacks exploit the way AI models process instructions by embedding malicious commands within user inputs or system prompts. These attacks can cause AI agents to ignore their guidelines, reveal confidential data, generate harmful content, or execute unintended actions—posing significant security and compliance risks for organizations deploying AI in customer-facing roles.
In customer service applications, prompt injection could potentially trick an AI agent into disclosing pricing information it shouldn't share, bypassing approval workflows, or providing unauthorized access to account functions. This makes prompt injection defense essential for any production AI system handling sensitive operations or proprietary information.
Protecting against prompt injection requires a multi-layered approach: input validation and sanitization, robust guardrails that detect suspicious patterns, separation of user content from system instructions, and continuous monitoring for anomalous behavior. Enterprise-grade AI platforms implement sophisticated prompt injection detection and prevention mechanisms as a foundational security requirement.