New MemGhost Attack Plants Persistent False Memories in AI Agents Through One Email

Researchers discovered MemGhost, an attack that tricks AI agents (assistants that remember information about you across sessions) into secretly storing false information through a single specially crafted email. The planted false "memory" then influences the agent's future responses without the user noticing, because the agent hides its file-editing steps and users rarely check raw memory files. The attack succeeded in 87.5% of background-mode tests, showing that agents reading email inboxes are vulnerable to having their persistent memories poisoned.