ChatGPT Vulnerability Exploited: Hacker Demonstrates Data Theft via ‘SpAIware

A recent cyber vulnerability in ChatGPT’s long-term memory feature was exposed, showing how hackers could use this AI tool to steal user data. Security researcher Johann Rehberger demonstrated this issue through a concept he named “SpAIware,” which exploited a weakness in ChatGPT’s macOS app, allowing it to act as spyware.

ChatGPT initially only stored memory within an active conversation session, resetting once the chat ended. This limited the potential for hackers to exploit data, as the information wasn’t saved long-term. 

However, earlier this year, OpenAI introduced a new feature allowing ChatGPT to retain memory between different conversations. This update, meant to personalize the user experience, also created an unexpected opportunity for cybercriminals to manipulate the chatbot’s memory retention.

Rehberger identified that through prompt injection, hackers could insert malicious commands into ChatGPT’s memory. This allowed the chatbot to continuously send a user’s conversation history to a remote server, even across different sessions. 

Once a hacker successfully inserted this prompt into ChatGPT’s long-term memory, the user’s data would be collected each time they interacted with the AI tool. This makes the attack particularly dangerous, as most users wouldn’t notice anything suspicious while their information is being stolen in the background.

What makes this attack even more alarming is that the hacker doesn’t require direct access to a user’s device to initiate the injection.

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