Jargonautica
Security and Privacy

Attack Surface

Everywhere an attacker can reach your system. For an AI application this is wider than people expect: not just the login page but every document the model reads, every tool it can call, every connector someone added, and the output wherever it lands.

Technical view

Comprises the API boundary, the training and fine-tuning data path, the retrieval corpus, tool and plugin definitions, third-party connector servers, agent-controlled browsers and code sandboxes, and the model output where it is rendered or executed downstream. Each connector added expands it. Reduction measures include limiting tool exposure per task, restricting egress, treating all retrieved content as untrusted, and treating model output as untrusted input to whatever consumes it.


Part of AI Terminology Index, section: Security and Privacy.

How it connects

Attack Surface links to 7 other terms. The faint lines are links between those terms. See it in the full graph.

Least PrivilegeLeast PrivilegeThreat ModelThreat ModelZero TrustZero TrustModel Context ProtocolModel Context Proto…Indirect Prompt InjectionIndirect Prompt Inj…Supply Chain SecuritySupply Chain Securi…Bug BountyBug BountyAttack Surface