Experts manage to hack Microsoft Copilot by continually asking it questions about itself
An AI isn't secure if it's gullible and can be tricked into compliance, experts find.
Security researchers at Varonis discovered CoSnitch, a trio of flaws in Microsoft's AI-powered Copilot that enables data exfiltration. The vulnerabilities, labeled CVE-2026-24301 with a severity rating of 8.8/10, were identified through a technique called "meta-hacking," where researchers conversed with Copilot to uncover its guardrails and bypass them.
By crafting a malicious URL, threat actors could force Copilot to execute arbitrary commands, potentially sending sensitive data to attackers' infrastructure. However, the researchers also discovered that if Copilot was connected to external apps like Gmail, Drive, and Calendar, it could exfiltrate a wider range of sensitive information.
The third vulnerability, "Persistent memory poisoning via web summarization," allows attackers to inject malicious instructions into a victim's permanent memory store, surviving even password changes and device re-enrollment. Microsoft learned of the CoSnitch vulnerabilities in December 2025 but only addressed them in mid-August 2026.
The patch is a server-side fix, meaning no action is required from users. While Varonis did not find evidence of CoSnitch being exploited, they warn that other AI models could be vulnerable to similar techniques due to the meta-hacking approach used in this discovery.
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