Your Vercel AI SDK App Has a Prompt Injection Vulnerability
The article discusses the risk of prompt injection vulnerabilities in AI applications built using the Vercel AI SDK, where user input is passed directly to the AI model without proper validation.
Why it matters
Prompt injection vulnerabilities in AI applications can have serious consequences, and developers need to address them proactively to ensure the security of their AI-powered systems.
Key Points
- 1Prompt injection is the SQL injection of the AI era, and most AI applications are vulnerable to it
- 2Developers often pass user input directly to generateText() without any validation, creating a security risk
- 3Potential attacks include overriding system instructions, exfiltrating the system prompt, and triggering unintended tool calls
- 4Manual code review is not scalable, as each LLM call needs to be checked for input validation and other security measures
Details
The article explains that the Vercel AI SDK provides several methods like generateText(), streamText(), generateObject(), and streamObject() that are potential injection points for attackers. They can submit input that overrides system instructions, exfiltrates the system prompt, or triggers unintended tool calls. These attacks are not theoretical but are happening in production apps today. Manual code review is not a scalable solution, as each LLM call needs to be checked for input validation, length limits, and protection against reflection attacks. The author has developed an ESLint plugin called 'eslint-plugin-vercel-ai-security' that can automatically detect these vulnerabilities during development, covering 100% of the OWASP LLM Top 10 2025.
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