MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 65.09.01

Prompt injection attack

Category: Inference risks (Robustness)

Description

"A prompt injection attack forces a generative model that takes a prompt as input to produce unexpected output by manipulating the structure, instructions, or information contained in its prompt."

From AI Risk Atlas (IBM2025), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).

Classification

Causal entity
Human

Subdomain definition: Vulnerabilities in AI systems, software development toolchains, and hardware that can be exploited, resulting in unauthorized access, data and privacy breaches, or system manipulation causing unsafe outputs or behavior.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

Browse all incidents in this subdomain

How other frameworks describe this risk

Other entries from IBM2025