Architecture Components

RAG Research

Security research involving retrieval-augmented generation systems

97 matching entries

RAG research results

97 entries

Query-Agnostic Poisoning of Policy-Aware RAG Knowledge Bases

Published 7/5/2026

Analyzed 7/20/2026

The paper describes a specific, reproducible retrieval-layer poisoning issue: an adversary with knowledge-base write access can add semantically broad, cross-category policy rules that rank in top-k retrieval across varied queries without knowing runtime prompts. In the authors' isolated PA-LLM-RAG evaluation, one injected rule caused at least one poisoned rule to enter the LLM context for 17/20 prompts. Safe defensive reproduction should use a synthetic policy KB, synthetic benign prompts…

Knowledge Base Poisoning Attacks and Defense for Policy-Aware LLM-RAG Framework

Evaluated models: nomic-embed-text

Source: arXiv

Fluent Single-Document RAG Corpus Poisoning

Published 5/27/2026

Analyzed 7/20/2026

SilentRetrieval describes a specific RAG corpus-integrity vulnerability: an attacker able to add a topically relevant document to a retrieval corpus can make that document rank highly and influence the generated answer while remaining fluent enough to evade simple perplexity checks. The paper evaluates a two-stage method combining retrieval-oriented document optimization with context-adaptive claim integration. A safe defensive reproduction is to use only isolated benchmark corpora and inert…

SilentRetrieval: Hijacking Retrieval-Augmented Generation via Semantically-Preserving Adversarial Data Poisoning

Evaluated models: Llama 2 7B Chat, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2, Qwen 7B Chat +1 more

Source: arXiv

Query-Agnostic Poisoning of Medical Multimodal RAG

Published 5/11/2026

Analyzed 7/20/2026

M3Att demonstrates a reproducible knowledge-poisoning issue in medical multimodal RAG: an attacker with limited corpus-distribution knowledge can insert paired image-text entries whose visually perturbed images are broadly retrieved and whose clinically plausible misinformation steers downstream generation. The paper evaluates both white-box and black-box retrieval optimization and reports degraded diagnostic and report-generation utility across multiple datasets, retrievers, and LVLMs. These…

Knowledge Poisoning Attacks on Medical Multi-Modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Evaluated models: GPT-4o, GPT-5 Chat, Gemini 2.5 Flash +5 more

Source: arXiv

Single-Document Reasoning Poisoning in RAG

Published 4/14/2026

Analyzed 7/20/2026

The paper describes a specific black-box knowledge-base poisoning attack against retrieval-augmented reasoning systems. An attacker who can add one query-specific document to the corpus can cause it to be retrieved and influence the LLM toward an attacker-chosen answer. AdversarialCoT shapes the document around the target model’s observable reasoning structure and iteratively refines retrieval relevance and persuasive reasoning using final model feedback. The paper reports this as an…

AdversarialCoT: Single-Document Retrieval Poisoning for LLM Reasoning

Evaluated models: DeepSeek R1, GLM 4.5, Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct +1 more

Source: arXiv

Agent Implicit Doc Execution

Published 4/1/2026

Analyzed 4/10/2026

LLM-based coding agents are vulnerable to Document-Driven Implicit Payload Execution (DDIPE) via supply-chain poisoning of third-party agent skills. Attackers can embed malicious logic directly into legitimate-looking code examples and configuration templates within skill documentation files (e.g., SKILL.md). Because coding agents ingest this metadata into their context windows and treat the documentation as an authoritative reference, the underlying LLM silently reproduces and executes the…

Supply-Chain Poisoning Attacks Against LLM Coding Agent Skill Ecosystems

Evaluated models: Claude Sonnet 4.6, GLM-4.7, MiniMax M2.5 +2 more

Source: arXiv

Benign Cross-User Contamination

Published 4/1/2026

Analyzed 4/11/2026

A vulnerability exists in multi-user LLM agents utilizing persistent shared state, allowing Unintentional Cross-User Contamination (UCC). Without requiring any malicious input or attacker, benign user interactions containing locally valid scope constraints, formatting preferences, or procedural rules are persisted into the agent's shared memory or conversational context. The agent subsequently retrieves and misapplies these scope-bound artifacts to unrelated tasks from different users. This…

No Attacker Needed: Unintentional Cross-User Contamination in Shared-State LLM Agents

Evaluated models: GPT-4o

Source: arXiv

No-Prompt Reasoning Hijack

Published 4/1/2026

Analyzed 4/10/2026

An implicit reasoning hijacking vulnerability exists in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and LLM-based agent frameworks. Attackers with write access to an agent's external memory or knowledge base can inject adversarially optimized malicious instances that trigger jailbreaks without requiring any modifications to the user's input prompt. The attack utilizes a shadow model to extract high-contribution subword tokens from anticipated benign user queries via log-probability changes and…

Stop Fixating on Prompts: Reasoning Hijacking and Constraint Tightening for Red-Teaming LLM Agents

Evaluated models: GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4o, GPT-5 +4 more

Source: arXiv

Agent Lifecycle Compound Threats

Published 3/1/2026

Analyzed 4/10/2026

OpenClaw is vulnerable to persistent memory poisoning, allowing an attacker to manipulate the agent's long-term memory store (MEMORY.md) via prompt injection. Because the autonomous agent continuously integrates this memory file as context for all subsequent reasoning and task planning, injected payloads act as durable behavioral constraints. This allows an attacker to persistently alter the agent's core policy, manipulate tool selection, and hijack future sessions without any further…

Taming openclaw: Security analysis and mitigation of autonomous llm agent threats

Evaluated models: Not reported

Source: arXiv

Autonomous Agent Tool RCE

Published 3/1/2026

Analyzed 4/11/2026

The OpenClaw autonomous agent framework lacks execution sandboxing, running agents directly on the host machine with the disk and system privileges of the host user. This architecture allows attackers to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) and arbitrary data exfiltration via Indirect Prompt Injection. By embedding malicious instructions within external data sources (e.g., scraped web pages or uploaded documents), an attacker can hijack the agent's planning capabilities to sequentially chain…

Uncovering Security Threats and Architecting Defenses in Autonomous Agents: A Case Study of OpenClaw

Evaluated models: Not reported

Source: arXiv

Contextual Priority Hacking

Published 3/1/2026

Analyzed 4/10/2026

Large Language Models (LLMs) are vulnerable to a jailbreak technique termed "Priority Hacking." Adversaries can bypass safety alignments by exploiting the model's internal priority graph, where certain abstract values (e.g., justice, public health) implicitly outweigh general safety restrictions within specific contexts. By crafting a deceptive prompt that frames a malicious request as a necessary action in service of a higher-priority benign value, attackers engineer a value conflict. The…

Are Dilemmas and Conflicts in LLM Alignment Solvable? A View from Priority Graph

Evaluated models: Not reported

Source: arXiv

Related research categories