Memory Poisoning: The New Injection Attack

SQL injection taught us to sanitize inputs. XSS taught us to escape outputs. Memory poisoning is the new frontier—and most teams aren't prepared.

The Attack Vector

AI agents ingest data from multiple sources: user inputs, API responses, web scraping, file uploads. Any of these can inject corrupted context.

Unlike traditional injection attacks, memory poisoning is **persistent**. Bad data doesn't just affect one query—it contaminates the entire knowledge base.

Real-World Scenarios

Enterprise CRM Agent

An adversary submits a fake customer complaint containing crafted context. The agent learns this false "fact." Future decisions favor this customer inappropriately. Audit trails show no tampering.

Research Assistant

Poisoned academic papers with fake citations. The agent cites this in future research. Misinformation propagates with apparent academic backing.

Why Traditional Security Fails

Input Validation: Poisoned data looks legitimate. It passes schema validation.

Sandboxing: The agent has legitimate access to its own memory. Sandbox can't prevent self-corruption.

Access Control: The threat isn't unauthorized access—it's authorized writes of adversarial data.

The Solution: Integrity Infrastructure

What enterprise teams need:

Cryptographic Signing: SHA-256 signature on every artifact. Tamper detection at query time.

Baseline Monitoring: Statistical models of "normal" memory patterns. Alert on deviation.

Automatic Rollback: Git-like versioning. Surgical removal of poisoned artifacts without downtime.

Audit Trails: Compliance-ready logs. Forensic timeline reconstruction. Root cause analysis.

Compliance Requirements

SOC 2: Requires integrity controls for data at rest.

GDPR: Mandates data accuracy. Poisoned context violates this.

HIPAA: Demands tamper-proof records. Agent memory needs this too.

Next Steps

If you're deploying AI agents in production:

1. Audit your memory storage. Is it cryptographically verified? 2. Implement integrity monitoring. Can you detect poisoning in real-time? 3. Plan for rollback. How fast can you recover from corruption?

This is what Novyx Integrity solves.