UK NCSC Warns of Persistent Prompt Injection Vulnerabilities in AI Systems
The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a warning regarding the persistent nature of prompt injection vulnerabilities in AI systems, particularly those using large language models (LLMs). According to David C, the NCSC's technical director for platforms research, these vulnerabilities cannot be fully mitigated due to the inherent design of LLMs, which do not distinguish between data and instructions. This makes them susceptible to manipulation through prompt injection, a type of attack where malicious inputs are treated as executable instructions. The NCSC suggests that instead of attempting to eliminate these vulnerabilities, efforts should focus on reducing their impact. This includes increasing awareness among developers and security teams, designing secure LLMs, and implementing non-LLM safeguards to constrain system actions. 
