RAG Shield: A Multi-Layer Defense System Against Poisoning Attacks in Retrieval-Augmented Generation

This whitepaper presents RAG Shield, a security-focused framework fordefending Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines againstpoisoning and adversarial manipulation. The work introduces a multi-layer defense architecture combiningdocument provenance validation, semantic anomaly detection, andsecure retrieval mechanisms. A realistic threat model is defined,and the system is evaluated against multiple attack scenarios undercontrolled conditions. This document is released as a technical preprint to establishprior art and support open discussion in the areas of AI security,adversarial machine learning, and secure enterprise RAG deployment.