Microsoft confirms an AI worm is propagating through Copilot and other MS apps

A prominent Norwegian AI researcher on Tuesday posted details about an AI worm that is wreaking havoc in various Microsoft applications, including Word and Copilot. The report from noted Norwegian AI researcher Håkon Måløy , now confirmed by Microsoft, said that an attacker can conceal instructions in a document that is later used as source material for Copilot-generated or Copilot-edited Word documents, for example, as input to a financial report. Those malicious instructions could potentially alter figures in the document being created. They then copy themselves into the new document, causing it to become a carrier of the attack when used in another Copilot-assisted workflow. Måløy noted: “To my knowledge, this is among the first public demonstrations of document-borne AI-worm self-propagation through normal workflows in a mainstream commercial productivity suite.” Microsoft on Thursday emailed a statement to CSOonline discussing the report’s revelations. “We have addressed the findings reported by the researcher and thank them for working with us through coordinated vulnerability disclosure. To address this class of risk, we use a defense-in-depth strategy with safeguards that b