APPLIED AIGLOSSARY

ByJulian Calvo, Ed.D.Founder, DecipherU

What is Prompt Injection in Applied AI?

AI x Cybersecurity Convergence
ByDecipherU Editorial
Version 1.0 · Published April 2026 · Last verified April 2026

An attack where an adversary plants instructions inside content the model will later read, with the goal of overriding the system prompt or extracting data. Direct prompt injection sits in the user input; indirect prompt injection hides in retrieved documents, emails, or tool outputs. The attack is now the headline LLM application risk in OWASP's framework.

Why Prompt Injection Matters for Your AI or Cybersecurity Career

Prompt injection is the entry point into many of the highest-paid AI security roles. AI Red Team Engineer, AI Safety Engineer, and Prompt Injection Defense Specialist titles all assume deep familiarity with the attack class.

Related Applied AI Terms

Cybersecurity Convergence

The cybersecurity glossary covers a parallel term for this concept on the cyber side of the convergence.

Read about Prompt Injection in cybersecurity →

An attack where an adversary plants instructions inside content the model will later read, with the goal of overriding the system prompt or extracting data. Direct prompt injection sits in the user input; indirect prompt injection hides in retrieved documents, emails, or tool outputs. The attack is now the headline LLM application risk in OWASP's framework.

Prompt injection is the entry point into many of the highest-paid AI security roles. AI Red Team Engineer, AI Safety Engineer, and Prompt Injection Defense Specialist titles all assume deep familiarity with the attack class.

Last verified: April 2026?Report an inaccuracy