HOME>DICTIONARY>Rules-File Injection

What Does 'Rules-File Injection' Mean?

[ AGENT SECURITY ][ MACHINE CULTURE ]

FORCE: Machine CultureUNIVERSE: Agent SecurityCLUSTER: Coding Agent Security

Hiding malicious instructions inside a project's coding-agent rules file so they execute automatically the moment any developer opens the repo in an agent-integrated editor, without the developer ever writing or approving the instruction themselves.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE

"The malicious fork's rules-file injection quietly told every agent that opened it to also scan for and upload any .env files it found."

LORE & ORIGIN

A specific variant of prompt injection targeting the persistent, auto-loaded configuration files coding agents read at the start of every session.

FIRST SEEN

2025

PEAK POPULARITY

2026 (Coding Agent Security)

CURRENT STATUS

Legacy / Decaying Slang

阅读中文版 →日本語版を読む →한국어판 보기 →Leer en español →Ler em português →Lire en français →

EQUIVALENT CONCEPTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

中文 zh-CN规则文件注入 →日本語 ja-JPルールファイルインジェクション →한국어 ko-KR규칙 파일 인젝션 →Español es-ESinyección en archivo de reglas →Português pt-BRinjeção no arquivo de regras →Français fr-FRinjection dans le fichier de règles →

AURA IMPACT ⓘ

+1 AURA

TREND STATUS

↑ HIGH RISING FAST · LOW

CULTURE CATEGORY

[ AGENT SECURITY ][ MACHINE CULTURE ]

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MENTIONS OVER TIME

2023202420252026

TOP PLATFORMS

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22%

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18%

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Others

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