Here Comes The AI Worm: Unleashing Zero-click Worms that Target GenAI-Powered Applications

Abstract

This paper introduces Morris II, the first worm designed to target GenAI ecosystems through the use of adversarial self-replicating prompts that can insert prompts into inputs which, when processed by GenAI models, prompt the model to replicate the input as output (replication), engage in malicious activities (payload), and compel the agent to deliver them to new agents (propagate).