GraphRAG under Fire

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liang, Jiacheng, Wang, Yuhui, Li, Changjiang, Zhu, Rongyi, Jiang, Tanqiu, Gong, Neil, Wang, Ting
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Liang, Jiacheng
Wang, Yuhui
Li, Changjiang
Zhu, Rongyi
Jiang, Tanqiu
Gong, Neil
Wang, Ting
author_facet Liang, Jiacheng
Wang, Yuhui
Li, Changjiang
Zhu, Rongyi
Jiang, Tanqiu
Gong, Neil
Wang, Ting
contents GraphRAG advances retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) by structuring external knowledge as multi-scale knowledge graphs, enabling language models to integrate both broad context and granular details in their generation. While GraphRAG has demonstrated success across domains, its security implications remain largely unexplored. To bridge this gap, this work examines GraphRAG's vulnerability to poisoning attacks, uncovering an intriguing security paradox: existing RAG poisoning attacks are less effective under GraphRAG than conventional RAG, due to GraphRAG's graph-based indexing and retrieval; yet, the same features also create new attack surfaces. We present GragPoison, a novel attack that exploits shared relations in the underlying knowledge graph to craft poisoning text capable of compromising multiple queries simultaneously. GragPoison employs three key strategies: (i) relation injection to introduce false knowledge, (ii) relation enhancement to amplify poisoning influence, and (iii) narrative generation to embed malicious content within coherent text. Empirical evaluation across diverse datasets and models shows that GragPoison substantially outperforms existing attacks in terms of effectiveness (up to 98% success rate) and scalability (using less than 68% poisoning text) on multiple variations of GraphRAG. We also explore potential defensive measures and their limitations, identifying promising directions for future research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_14050
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle GraphRAG under Fire
Liang, Jiacheng
Wang, Yuhui
Li, Changjiang
Zhu, Rongyi
Jiang, Tanqiu
Gong, Neil
Wang, Ting
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
GraphRAG advances retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) by structuring external knowledge as multi-scale knowledge graphs, enabling language models to integrate both broad context and granular details in their generation. While GraphRAG has demonstrated success across domains, its security implications remain largely unexplored. To bridge this gap, this work examines GraphRAG's vulnerability to poisoning attacks, uncovering an intriguing security paradox: existing RAG poisoning attacks are less effective under GraphRAG than conventional RAG, due to GraphRAG's graph-based indexing and retrieval; yet, the same features also create new attack surfaces. We present GragPoison, a novel attack that exploits shared relations in the underlying knowledge graph to craft poisoning text capable of compromising multiple queries simultaneously. GragPoison employs three key strategies: (i) relation injection to introduce false knowledge, (ii) relation enhancement to amplify poisoning influence, and (iii) narrative generation to embed malicious content within coherent text. Empirical evaluation across diverse datasets and models shows that GragPoison substantially outperforms existing attacks in terms of effectiveness (up to 98% success rate) and scalability (using less than 68% poisoning text) on multiple variations of GraphRAG. We also explore potential defensive measures and their limitations, identifying promising directions for future research.
title GraphRAG under Fire
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.14050