ChatGPT Flaw Let a Planted Prompt Send a Victim's Gmail Data to Another Account
Check Point showed a planted prompt could make ChatGPT silently exfiltrate Gmail data via a hidden cross-container channel; OpenAI took the service offline.
Check Point Research demonstrated that a single planted instruction in a ChatGPT conversation could make the model silently exfiltrate Gmail data, chat history, and files to an attacker's account while replying normally to the user. The covert channel abused read/write properties on files in an internal JFrog Artifactory instance shared by ChatGPT code-execution containers across accounts, turning package metadata into shared storage. Injection vectors included pasted prompts, shared conversations, and custom GPT builder instructions; default connected-app permissions allowed Gmail reads without user approval. OpenAI confirmed the internal service was taken offline after disclosure; this is Check Point's second reported ChatGPT covert channel after a DNS-based one fixed in February.
- Hidden prompt made ChatGPT exfiltrate Gmail data during normal replies
- Covert channel used JFrog Artifactory file properties as shared storage
- Delivery via pasted prompts, shared chats, or custom GPT instructions
- Default connected-app permissions allowed reads without user approval
- OpenAI took the internal service offline after disclosure
- Tags
- agentic-aichatgptcheck-pointcovert-channeldata-exfiltrationjfrog-artifactoryopenaiprompt-injection
- Products
- ChatGPTGmailJFrog Artifactory
- AI models
- ChatGPT
From the original article
4 min read at thehackernews.com
Check Point Research said in a report published today that a single instruction planted in a ChatGPT conversation could cause ChatGPT to quietly work for an attacker while answering the user's question as usual. In the company's proof of concept, that hidden work read data from the user's connected Gmail account and passed it to a second ChatGPT account through a hidden channel
thehackernews.com
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