Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed particulars of a brand new assault referred to as CometJacking concentrating on Perplexity’s agentic AI browser Comet by embedding malicious prompts inside a seemingly innocuous hyperlink to siphon delicate knowledge, together with from related providers, like electronic mail and calendar.
The sneaky immediate injection assault performs out within the type of a malicious hyperlink that, when clicked, triggers the sudden habits unbeknownst to the victims.
“CometJacking exhibits how a single, weaponized URL can quietly flip an AI browser from a trusted co-pilot to an insider menace,” Michelle Levy, Head of Safety Analysis at LayerX, stated in a press release shared with The Hacker Information.
“This is not nearly stealing knowledge; it is about hijacking the agent that already has the keys. Our analysis proves that trivial obfuscation can bypass knowledge exfiltration checks and pull electronic mail, calendar, and connector knowledge off-box in a single click on. AI-native browsers want security-by-design for agent prompts and reminiscence entry, not simply web page content material.”
The assault, in a nutshell, hijacks the AI assistant embedded within the browser to steal knowledge, all whereas bypassing Perplexity’s knowledge protections utilizing trivial Base64-encoding methods. The assault doesn’t embrace any credential theft part as a result of the browser already has approved entry to Gmail, Calendar, and different related providers.
It takes place over 5 steps, activating when a sufferer clicks on a specifically crafted URL, both despatched in a phishing electronic mail or current in an online web page. As a substitute of taking the person to the “supposed” vacation spot, the URL instructs the Comet browser’s AI to execute a hidden immediate that captures the person’s knowledge from, say, Gmail, obfuscates it utilizing Base64-encoding, and transmits the data to an endpoint below the attacker’s management.
The crafted URL is a question string directed on the Comet AI browser, with the malicious instruction added utilizing the “assortment” parameter of the URL, inflicting the agent to seek the advice of its reminiscence moderately than carry out a reside net search.
Whereas Perplexity has categorised the findings as having “no safety impression,” they as soon as once more spotlight how AI-native instruments introduce new safety dangers that may get round conventional defenses, enable dangerous actors to commandeer them to do their bidding, and expose customers and organizations to potential knowledge theft within the course of.
In August 2020, Guardio Labs disclosed an assault approach dubbed Scamlexity whereby browsers like Comet may very well be tricked by menace actors into interacting with phishing touchdown pages or counterfeit e-commerce storefronts with out the human person’s information or intervention.
“AI browsers are the subsequent enterprise battleground,” Or Eshed, CEO of LayerX, stated. “When an attacker can direct your assistant with a hyperlink, the browser turns into a command-and-control level inside the corporate perimeter. Organizations should urgently consider controls that detect and neutralize malicious agent prompts earlier than these PoCs turn into widespread campaigns.”
