📰 AI News: Your AI Browser Can Be Hacked Through Invisible Text in Screenshots (And It's Worse Than You Think)
Brave just exposed a terrifying vulnerability in AI browsers: Attackers can hide malicious commands in screenshots using nearly-invisible text that humans can't see but AI can read—and execute. This isn't theoretical. This is happening right now in browsers millions are using. The announcement: Brave's security team disclosed multiple "unseeable prompt injection" vulnerabilities affecting AI-powered browsers like Perplexity's Comet and Fellou. These attacks allow malicious instructions hidden in webpage content or screenshots to hijack AI assistants and take actions on your behalf—like stealing money from your bank account or accessing private data. What "unseeable prompt injections" actually are: Traditional prompt injection involves typing malicious commands into an AI chatbot. This is different—and more dangerous. Unseeable prompt injections hide malicious instructions in places you'd never notice: - Nearly-invisible text in images (light blue on yellow backgrounds) - Hidden text embedded in webpage content - Instructions camouflaged in Reddit posts or social media Your AI browser reads this hidden text through OCR (optical character recognition) and executes the commands—without you ever seeing them. Attack #1: Screenshot Injection in Perplexity Comet Perplexity's Comet browser lets users take screenshots and ask questions about images. Attackers exploit this feature. How the attack works: Step 1: Setup - Attacker embeds malicious instructions in web content using faint, nearly-invisible text (e.g., light blue text on yellow background) Step 2: Trigger - You take a screenshot of the page to ask Comet a question about it Step 3: Injection - Comet's OCR extracts the hidden text and sends it to the AI model without distinguishing it from your actual question Step 4: Exploit - The hidden commands instruct the AI to use its browser tools maliciously (access your bank, send emails, steal data)