gcdRadar
archive/Research/AIR-2023-0003
closedclosed 13 Nov 2023Research1 Research / proof of conceptAI

ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration via Indirect Prompt Injection

ChatGPT

A researcher demonstrated that indirect prompt injections on public websites could trick ChatGPT into rendering markdown images with embedded chat logs. This caused automatic requests to external servers, successfully exfiltrating user conversation data.

first report
30 Oct 2023
last update
30 Oct 2023

Timeline · 2

  1. 30 Oct 2023ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration
  2. 30 Oct 2023ChatGPT Plugins: Data Exfiltration via Images & Cross Plugin Request Forgery

Sources · 2

News and write-ups

  1. 2023-10-30
    ChatGPT Plugins: Data Exfiltration via Images & Cross Plugin Request Forgery
    Embrace The Red · embracethered.com/blog/posts/2023/chatgpt-webpilot-data-exfil-via-markdown-injec

Research and catalogues

  1. 2023-10-30
    ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration
    MITRE ATLAS · atlas.mitre.org/studies/AML.CS0021

Titles and links belong to their publishers. The summary above is written by gcdRadar in its own words; data is CC BY-SA 4.0.

Classification

AI role
Attack on AI
categories
Prompt injectionData leak
severity
1 · Research / proof of concept
targets
OpenAI
dates
happened May 2023 (approx.) · first reported 30 Oct 2023
origin
MITRE ATLAS
Derived from MITRE ATLAS (Apache 2.0, © MITRE).
record
confidence 0.95 · created 2026-10-18 06:55Z · updated 2026-10-18 06:55Z

Lane, AI role, categories and severity come from the classifier; the OWASP and ATLAS rows are derived from the categories. How these are assigned

Copy a brief

This record as a short Markdown brief, for a ticket, a chat or a coding agent.

the brief as text
# ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration via Indirect Prompt Injection

https://gcdradar.vercel.app/incidents/chatgpt-conversation-exfiltration-via-indirect-prompt-inject · AIR-2023-0003 · closed 2023-11-13

- Lane: Research
- Severity: 1 (Research / proof of concept)
- Fix status: Fix status unknown
- First reported: 2023-10-30 (happened 2023-05)
- AI role: Attack on AI
- Products: ChatGPT

## Summary

A researcher demonstrated that indirect prompt injections on public websites could trick ChatGPT into rendering markdown images with embedded chat logs. This caused automatic requests to external servers, successfully exfiltrating user conversation data.

## What to do

No action recorded; read the sources below and the vendor's advisory.

## Latest updates

- 2023-10-30: ChatGPT Plugins: Data Exfiltration via Images & Cross Plugin Request Forgery (https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2023/chatgpt-webpilot-data-exfil-via-markdown-injection)
- 2023-10-30: ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration (https://atlas.mitre.org/studies/AML.CS0021)

## Sources

- 2023-10-30 MITRE ATLAS: ChatGPT Conversation Exfiltration https://atlas.mitre.org/studies/AML.CS0021
- 2023-10-30 Embrace The Red: ChatGPT Plugins: Data Exfiltration via Images & Cross Plugin Request Forgery https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2023/chatgpt-webpilot-data-exfil-via-markdown-injection

Verify against the vendor's advisory before changing production. Data CC BY-SA 4.0, https://gcdradar.vercel.app.

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