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Microsoft Patches Copilot ‘Reprompt’ Flaw That Enabled One-Click Data Theft

A consumer-only bug let phishing links hijack sessions to quietly pull chat and account details until this week’s fix.

Overview

  • Varonis Threat Labs disclosed the Reprompt technique to Microsoft on August 31, 2025, and the company issued a fix on January 13, 2026’s Patch Tuesday.
  • The attack injected instructions via Copilot’s 'q' URL parameter, then used a double-request bypass and server-driven chain requests to sustain covert exfiltration.
  • A single click on a phishing link let attackers control a user’s Copilot Personal session even after the chat window closed, pulling data such as name, location, and chat history details.
  • Microsoft and Varonis say the issue affected Copilot Personal, while Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprises was not impacted due to added protections like tenant-level DLP and Purview auditing.
  • Researchers report no known in-the-wild exploitation, but warn that detection is difficult because follow-up commands come from the attacker’s server, so users should update immediately and avoid suspicious links.