[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-spammers-adopt-ascii-smuggling-trick-built-for-ai-attacks":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},6088,"spammers-adopt-ascii-smuggling-trick-built-for-ai-attacks","Spammers Adopt ASCII Smuggling Trick Built for AI Attacks","A technique once used to sneak invisible prompts past AI agents is now helping spam emails slip past filters undetected.","A trick built to slip invisible commands past AI chatbots is now slipping spam past your inbox's filters.\n\nSecurity researchers say spammers have picked up ASCII smuggling, a technique that surfaced about two years ago as a way to sneak prompt injections past AI systems processing untrusted text. The method relies on a set of 128 Unicode tag characters that closely mirror standard ASCII: the tag point U+E0041 renders as \"A,\" for instance, and U+E0061 renders as \"a.\" Software reads these tags as ordinary letters, but they display as nothing at all to a human eye. Spammers are now embedding messages in these invisible characters to dodge the filters that email platforms use to flag mass campaigns.\n\nThis is a reminder that security tricks rarely stay confined to their original target. A method built to fool language models works just as well against the pattern-matching filters email providers still lean on, which means filter designers now have to defend against an entire category of Unicode trickery, not just the AI-specific version.\n\nTwo years ago, ASCII smuggling was a proof-of-concept for researchers poking at chatbots. Now it is showing up in spam folders, which says less about the cleverness of spammers than about how narrowly filters were built to look for trouble.","[\"ascii smuggling\",\"spam\",\"email security\",\"ai security\"]","2026-09-04T17:18:12.000Z","2026-09-04T19:48:36.705Z","2026-09-04T19:48:48.655Z","published",null,[],"security",[26,27,28,29],"ascii smuggling","spam","email security","ai security",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"Ars Technica","https:\u002F\u002Farstechnica.com\u002Fsecurity\u002F2026\u002F09\u002Fonce-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers\u002F",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,46,51,56,61,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,101],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",3385,"2026-09-04T22:17:36.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":24,"count":44,"latest_published_at":45},"Security",565,"2026-09-05T00:03:08.000Z",{"name":47,"slug":48,"count":49,"latest_published_at":50},"Policy","policy",300,"2026-09-04T22:18:34.000Z",{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Hardware","hardware",152,"2026-09-03T09:26:48.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",97,"2026-09-04T15:29:18.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Science","science",96,"2026-09-03T22:30:00.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",54,"2026-09-04T23:36:14.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"General","general",37,"2026-09-04T20:22:41.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]