How this one-click Copilot attack bypassed security controls - and what Microsoft did about it

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. Researchers have revealed a new attack that required only one click to execute, bypassing Microsoft Copilot security controls and enabling the theft of user data. Also: How to remove Copilot AI from Windows 11 today On Wednesday, Varonis Threat Labs published new research documenting Reprompt, a new attack method that affected Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant. Reprompt impacted Microsoft Copilot Personal and, according to the team, gave "threat actors an invisible entry point to perform a data‑exfiltration chain that bypasses enterprise security controls entirely and accesses sensitive data without detection -- all from one click." Also: AI PCs aren't selling, and Microsoft's PC partners are scrambling No user interaction with Copilot or plugins was required for this attack to trigger. Instead, victims had to click a link. After this single click, Reprompt could circumvent security controls by abusing the 'q' URL parameter to feed a prompt and malicious actions through to Copilot, potentially allowing an attacker to ask for data previously submitted by the user -- including personally identifiable information (PII). "The attacker maintains control even when the Copilot chat is closed, allowing the victim's session to be silently exfiltrated with no interaction beyond that first click," the researchers said. Reprompt chained three techniques together: According to Varonis, this method was difficult to detect because user- a...