A Few Words Can Distort Graphs: Knowledge Poisoning Attacks on Graph-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation of Large Language Models

Abstract

Graph-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation (GraphRAG) has recently emerged as a promising paradigm for enhancing large language models (LLMs) by converting raw text into structured knowledge graphs, improving both accuracy and explainability. However, GraphRAG relies on LLMs to extract knowledge from raw text during graph construction, and this process can be maliciously manipulated to implant misleading information. Targeting this attack surface, we propose two knowledge poisoning attacks (KPAs) and demonstrate that modifying only a few words in the source text can significantly change the constructed graph, poison the GraphRAG, and severely mislead downstream reasoning. The first attack, named Targeted KPA (TKPA), utilizes graph-theoretic analysis to locate vulnerable nodes in the generated graphs and rewrites the corresponding narratives with LLMs, achieving precise control over specific question-answering (QA) outcomes with a success rate of 93.1\%, while keeping the poisoned text fluent and natural. The second attack, named Universal KPA (UKPA), exploits linguistic cues such as pronouns and dependency relations to disrupt the structural integrity of the generated graph by altering globally influential words. With fewer than 0.05\% of full text modified, the QA accuracy collapses from 95\% to 50\%. Furthermore, experiments show that state-of-the-art defense methods fail to detect these attacks, highlighting that securing GraphRAG pipelines against knowledge poisoning remains largely unexplored.