AI Penetration Testing & Analysis
Real experts who try to break your AI
You built a custom AI chatbot, assistant, or agent. Before you put it in front of customers, someone should spend real time trying to make it misbehave. That is what AI penetration testing is, and we do it by hand. Our security team works through your AI the way a motivated attacker would, then hands you a plain-English report of what actually broke and how to fix it.
Hands-on testing by our security team. This is not an automated scan, and it is not a self-serve tool.
The difference
A scanner checks a list. A person gets curious.
Automated AI security tools run through known tricks and tell you which ones worked. That is a reasonable starting point, and we use tooling too. But the findings that actually matter tend to come from a tester noticing something strange in an answer and spending the next hour pulling on that thread.
What a tool finds
- The well-known phrasings that trick a model into ignoring its rules
- Obvious gaps that match a published pattern
- A long list of results, with the real ones mixed in among the noise
What our team finds
- The problems specific to your business, your data, and your rules
- Chains where three harmless-looking steps add up to a real problem
- Verified findings only, each with the steps to reproduce it yourself
Who this is for
Signs it is time to test
If more than one of these sounds like you, the risk is already real.
Customers can talk to it
Anything the public can type into is something the public can try to manipulate. A chatbot on your website or in your product is reachable by anyone, including people looking for a way in.
It can read your internal documents
If your AI answers from company files, contracts, pricing, or customer records, the question becomes which of those it will repeat, and to whom, when someone asks the right way.
It can actually do things
AI that sends email, updates records, moves money, or calls other systems has real reach. Tricking it into acting is a bigger problem than tricking it into talking.
A customer is asking about it
Security questionnaires and enterprise buyers have started asking how AI features were tested. An independent test gives you a real answer instead of an assurance.
It was built fast
Most AI features ship quickly, often by a small team or an outside developer, and security review is the step that gets skipped. Speed is fine. Skipping the check is what costs you.
It changed since anyone looked
New instructions, a new data source, or a new action the AI is allowed to take can reopen problems that were closed. Behavior drifts as the system grows.
Coverage
What an AI penetration test covers
We work through five areas, guided by the industry-standard checklist for AI risks (the OWASP Top 10 for large language model applications) and by whatever your particular setup makes possible.
Talking it out of its rules
Every AI runs on instructions telling it what it may and may not do. We try to overwrite them: hidden instructions buried in a document it reads, roleplay setups, and the patient step-by-step approaches that work far more often than a single blunt request.
Getting it to leak things
We test what it will reveal under pressure: its own instructions, another customer's information, records it can reach but should never repeat, and the internal details that make a follow-up attack easier.
Making it act on bad instructions
If your AI can take actions, we test whether a stranger can steer those actions. That covers what it is allowed to touch, what it does with a request that looks legitimate but is not, and whether anything dangerous happens without a human agreeing to it first.
The documents behind the answers
Most business AI answers from a library of your content. We look at what went into that library, whether one user can pull another user's material out of it, and what happens when a poisoned document gets added to the pile.
The ordinary software around it
An AI feature is still a web application. We check the unglamorous things that break real systems: how its output is handled, who is allowed to call it, and whether it can be run up a bill or knocked over.
Want the detailed version of each area? Read what an AI penetration test checks.
What you get
You end up with fixes, not a scary PDF
A test that leaves you with a list of problems and no path forward has not helped you. The engagement is built to end with things closed.
A report you can act on
Findings ranked by real risk, each written twice: a plain-English explanation of what it means for the business, and the technical detail your developer needs.
Proof, not opinion
Every finding includes the exact steps to reproduce it. Your team can see it happen rather than take our word for it.
Fixes, not just problems
Specific recommended changes for each issue, ordered so you can start with what matters most rather than facing an undifferentiated list.
A walkthrough with the people who tested it
A call to go through what we found and answer questions, with whoever built the AI in the room if that helps.
A retest once you have fixed things
We come back and confirm the fixes hold, so the engagement ends with problems closed rather than documented.
Something to show buyers
A summary suitable for sharing with customers or partners who ask whether your AI features have been independently tested.
How it works
What the engagement looks like
- 01
A scoping call, free
We look at what you built, what it can reach, and what worries you. If testing is not worth it yet, we will say so on this call.
- 02
A fixed scope and a flat quote
You get the areas we will cover, what we need from you, the agreed timeline, and one price before anything starts. No hourly meter running.
- 03
Hands-on testing
Our team works through your AI by hand, following the leads that open up as we go. If we find something serious, you hear about it immediately rather than in the report.
- 04
Report and walkthrough
You get the written findings, then a call to talk through them and agree what to fix first.
- 05
Fixes and a retest
We support your team through the fixes, then retest to confirm each one holds.
Testing is available remotely worldwide, including our clients in the US, UK, and Australia.
FAQ
Questions before you book
How is this different from an automated AI security scanner?
Automated tools run a fixed list of known tricks and report which ones worked. That is useful, and it is where we start, but attackers do not stop at a list. The findings that matter usually come from a person noticing something odd in an answer and pulling on that thread for an hour. Our testing is done by hand, by security experts, using your actual application. The tools assist. They do not do the work.
What does an AI penetration test cost?
It depends on scope: how many AI features you have, what data and systems they can reach, and whether they can take actions or only answer questions. After a free scoping call you get one flat quote covering the whole engagement, including the report and the retest. This is a fixed-scope project rather than a monthly commitment, and it runs under our standard terms.
How long does it take?
That depends on how much there is to test. We agree the timeline with you during scoping and commit to it in writing before starting, so you can plan a launch around it. Anything critical gets reported to you the moment we find it, rather than waiting for the final report.
Do you test our live system or a copy?
Whichever is safer for you, and we agree it up front. A test copy is usually best when the AI can take real actions like sending email or changing records. When testing has to happen against the live system, we agree the boundaries in advance, avoid anything destructive, and schedule around your busy periods.
Do you need our source code?
No. We can test purely from the outside, the way an attacker would see it. If you are willing to share the code, the system instructions, or a description of what the AI is allowed to do, we will find more in the same amount of time. Either way works, and we will explain the tradeoff during scoping.
We did not build the AI ourselves. Can you still test it?
Yes. Plenty of businesses buy an AI feature or have an outside developer build one, which is exactly when an independent test is worth the most, because nobody in-house can vouch for how it was built. We test it as we find it, and we can talk to your vendor or developer about the fixes.
Our chatbot only answers questions. Do we still need this?
A chatbot that only answers questions can still be talked into repeating information it should not, including things from documents it was given access to and details about how it is set up. The risk is lower than for AI that can take actions, and it is not zero. The scoping call is the fastest way to find out where you sit.
What if you do not find anything serious?
Then you get a report saying so, with the evidence of what we tried, which is worth having when a customer or insurer asks. In practice we usually find something worth fixing, but we would rather hand you a clean result than pad a report.
Related reading
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Find out how your AI fails before someone else does
Book a free scoping call. We'll look at what you built, tell you honestly whether a test is worth it yet, and give you a fixed quote if it is.