Hackers Can Hijack Your Terminal Via Prompt Injection using LLM-powered Apps

Researchers have uncovered that Large Language Models (LLMs) can generate and manipulate ANSI escape codes, potentially creating new security vulnerabilities in terminal-based applications.

ANSI escape sequences are a standardized set of control characters used by terminal emulators to manipulate the appearance and behavior of text displays.

They enable features such as text color changes, cursor movement, blinking text, and more. Terminal emulators interpret these sequences to provide dynamic functionality, but they’ve also historically been a source of vulnerabilities.

This discovery, initially reported by Leon Derczynski and further investigated by security researchers, raises important concerns about the security of LLM-integrated command-line tools.

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ANSI escape codes, which are special character sequences used to control terminal behavior, can be exploited by LLMs in several concerning ways:

• Generating flashing text and color changes
• Manipulating cursor position and screen content ...