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Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) have transformed human-machine interaction since
ChatGPT's 2022 debut, with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) emerging as a
key framework that enhances LLM outputs by integrating external knowledge.
However, RAG's reliance on ingesting external documents introduces new
vulnerabilities. This paper exposes a critical security gap at the data loading
stage, where malicious actors can stealthily corrupt RAG pipelines by
exploiting document ingestion.
We propose a taxonomy of 9 knowledge-based poisoning attacks and introduce
two novel threat vectors -- Content Obfuscation and Content Injection --
targeting common formats (DOCX, HTML, PDF). Using an automated toolkit
implementing 19 stealthy injection techniques, we test five popular data
loaders, finding a 74.4% attack success rate across 357 scenarios. We further
validate these threats on six end-to-end RAG systems -- including white-box
pipelines and black-box services like NotebookLM and OpenAI Assistants --
demonstrating high success rates and critical vulnerabilities that bypass
filters and silently compromise output integrity. Our results emphasize the
urgent need to secure the document ingestion process in RAG systems against
covert content manipulations.