HiddenLayer

Next week at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, our team will be on-site discussing what organizations are seeing firsthand as AI systems move deeper into production environments, and why securing AI must happen alongside innovation. HiddenLayer has been recognized in 9 Gartner reports this year that focus on: • AI TRiSM • AI Runtime Security • Securing AI and GenAI initiatives • Emerging AI security priorities for enterprises As organizations move from experimentation to operationalizing AI, conversations around governance, resilience, and security are becoming critical business priorities, and it’s a big reason why Gartner continues to spotlight AI security in recent research. If you’ll be at the event, stop by Booth 1025 to connect with the HiddenLayer team. #GartnerSRM #AISecurity #GenAI #CyberSecurity #AI

AI governance can’t stop at policies and frameworks. As organizations adopt more autonomous AI systems, governance must extend into runtime behavior, operational controls, and real-world oversight. Join expert panelists John Smith, Malcolm Harkins, Gary McAlum, and Juan Gomez-Sanchez for a practical discussion on operationalizing AI governance. We’ll cover: • Why traditional governance approaches struggle in AI environments • Common gaps in current governance strategies • How to connect AI risk to operational controls • A practical framework for evaluating AI trust and security posture The conversation around AI governance is evolving from “What are the risks?” to “How do we manage them in practice?” 📅 Wednesday, June 10 ⏰ 12 PM ET Register here:: https://lnkd.in/gJnXCHuV #AIWebinar #CISO #AISecurity #AIGoverance #AIRegulation #AIRisk

Modern LLMs don’t understand “roles” or “instructions” naturally. They’re trained to recognize structures like control tokens, instruction hierarchy, and prompt templates that guide how they behave in conversations and agentic workflows. Those same mechanisms are also what attackers target through prompt injection, control token spoofing, and context manipulation. In our latest blog, we break down how these systems actually work behind the scenes, how models learn to prioritize system prompts over user inputs, and why these architectural patterns create entirely new security challenges for agentic AI systems. As AI agents become more connected to tools, enterprise data, and autonomous workflows, understanding these foundations is becoming increasingly important for defenders. Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/gvGtJUj7 #AI #AISecurity #LLM #AgenticAI #PromptInjection #Cybersecurity

As AI systems evolve from tools that assist decisions to systems capable of autonomous action, governance models must evolve too. Many governance approaches were created for predictable systems with humans in the loop, not autonomous AI systems operating at a scale and speed humans can’t easily monitor in real time. Join expert panelists John Smith, Malcolm Harkins, Gary McAlum, and Juan Gomez-Sanchez for a discussion on how organizations can operationalize AI governance by connecting: Risk → Decisions → Controls → Runtime Behavior In this webinar, we’ll cover: • Why traditional governance approaches break down in AI environments • Common gaps in current AI governance strategies • Where organizations may be over or under investing • Practical approaches to evaluating AI trust and security posture • How to connect governance frameworks to runtime security controls 📅 Wednesday, June 10 | ⏰ 12 PM ET Register here: https://lnkd.in/gdJR9r3j #AISecurity #AIGovernance #Cybersecurity #AgenticAI #AI #RiskManagement

Tokenizers are among the most overlooked yet critical components of Large Language Models. Before an LLM can understand a prompt, it has to convert text into tokens. But what happens when attackers exploit that process itself? In our latest blog, we break down how adversaries are weaponizing tokenization techniques to manipulate AI systems, evade safeguards, and bypass prompt injection defenses through methods like: • Glitch tokens • Invisible Unicode attacks • TokenBreak attacks As organizations continue integrating AI into critical workflows, attackers are increasingly targeting the foundational components that power LLM behavior, not just the models themselves. Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/gyjsYzST #AI #AISecurity #Cybersecurity #LLM #GenerativeAI #PromptInjection #MachineLearning #SecurityResearch

A critical vulnerability in ChromaDB’s Python FastAPI server can allow unauthenticated remote code execution through attacker-controlled model loading. In our latest research, we show how CVE-2026-45829 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code before authentication checks occur, potentially exposing environment variables, secrets, and stored data. The issue stems from two compounding flaws: • Trusting user-controlled model references and kwargs • Executing model-loading logic before authentication enforcement As vector databases become foundational to AI applications, this reinforces the reality that models are not passive data. Loading untrusted models is equivalent to running untrusted code. Key findings: • Affected versions: 1.0.0–1.5.8 • 73% of internet-exposed instances identified were running vulnerable versions • Exploitation requires only HTTP API access to the Python server We also outline mitigations organizations should implement immediately while awaiting a patch. Read the full research: https://lnkd.in/geaRtXZS #AISecurity #Cybersecurity #LLMSecurity #ThreatResearch #AI

A big congratulations to HiddenLayer CISO Malcolm Harkins on his induction into the CSO Hall of Fame at this year’s CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference in Nashville. A well-deserved recognition of his leadership and long-standing contributions to the cybersecurity industry. This week also brought thoughtful conversations around the realities of securing AI as adoption accelerates across industries. From planning for rapidly evolving AI risk, to the growing gap between AI trust and AI security, to how AI is reshaping both cyber defense and cyber threats, the discussions reflected just how quickly the landscape is changing. Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees, speakers, and attendees! Thank you, CSO Online, for pulling together such a great conference. #AISecurity #CISO #SecureAI #AIRisk #CSO #AITrust

Organizations focus on model weights, graphs, or code when evaluating AI supply chain risk. But what if the compromise lives somewhere far less obvious? Our latest research shows how tampering with a single vocabulary entry inside a tokenizer file can silently alter model outputs without modifying weights or architecture. Tokenizers control how models encode and decode every piece of information they process, and a compromised one can reroute requests, swap commands, and exfiltrate credentials across every downstream deployment, while remaining difficult to detect. In this blog, HiddenLayer researchers demonstrate: - Silent tool-call injection - URL rewriting and proxy interception - Command substitution attacks - Impact across SafeTensors, ONNX, and GGUF formats The weights can be clean. The graph can be clean. But the deployment can still be compromised. Read the full research: https://lnkd.in/gZvy8Gja #AISecurity #CyberSecurity #LLMSecurity #AgenticAI #SupplyChainSecurity #AIResearch

Over the weekend, one AI security research story made its way across the cybersecurity world. What started as HiddenLayer research into a malicious Hugging Face model quickly expanded into conversations across: → Technical communities → Security practitioners → CISO-focused outlets → AI governance discussions → Broader enterprise security conversations Coverage from The Hacker News, BleepingComputer, CISO Series, WinBuzzer.com, Cyber Press ®, GB Hackers, and others signals something bigger than a single research story. Organizations are recognizing that AI infrastructure, models, and repositories require the same scrutiny we now apply to traditional software supply chains. The AI attack surface is evolving quickly, and the industry conversation is evolving with it. Read the comprehensive research here: https://lnkd.in/gxE-c5qF #AINews #AISecurity #SecureAI #HuggingFace #Malware #AIMedia

This week at the CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference in Nashville, HiddenLayers' Malcolm Harkins will join industry leaders for several critical conversations focused on how to manage risk in an AI-driven world evolving faster than traditional security models were built to handle. His sessions will cover: • How CISOs can prepare for rapidly changing AI risk landscapes as systems increasingly influence their own evolution • Why trust in AI systems cannot rely on compliance or functionality alone, especially in healthcare, finance, and critical infrastructure • How AI is reshaping both cyber attacks and cyber defense, creating new opportunities for automation while introducing new operational and governance risks In addition to speaking at the event, Malcolm is also being recognized as a CSO Hall of Fame inductee, an honor reflecting his long-standing leadership and contributions to the cybersecurity industry. Register today: https://lnkd.in/ecdyYktg #AISecurity #AIGoverance #CISO #AITalk #SecureAI #ResponsibleAI