Model layer Vulnerabilities

A vulnerability exists in the function-calling mechanisms of open-source Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically identified as "Renaming Tool Poisoning" (RTP). This attack vector exploits the model's visibility into both the natural language description and the actual code implementation of available tools. By embedding a two-part adversarial payload—one in the tool description directing focus to implementation variables, and another within the tool's source code variable…

A fundamental algorithmic limitation exists in purely token-level multi-LLM collaboration systems (such as the "Collab" framework or routing-only variants of FusionRoute) that rely solely on selecting fixed expert outputs without complementary generation. The vulnerability, formally defined as an Identifiability Failure in Token-Level Routing, arises because observing optimal state-action values ($Q^$) along trajectories is insufficient to uniquely identify the specific expert action required…

A "Gamified Adversarial Multimodal Breakout via Instructional Traps" (GAMBIT) vulnerability exists in the safety alignment mechanisms of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs), specifically those employing Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning. The vulnerability exploits the finite cognitive resource budget of the model by inducing "cognitive overload" through a high-stakes, gamified context. The attack functions by decomposing a harmful query into a visual puzzle (e.g., a shuffled grid of image…

A safety bypass vulnerability exists in aligned Large Language Models (LLMs) permitting inference-time jailbreaking via direct activation repatching. The vulnerability exploits the distributed nature of safety mechanisms, which are governed by approximately 30% of total attention heads (termed "safety-critical heads"). By utilizing a Global Optimization for Safety Vector Extraction (GOSV) framework, an attacker can identify these interdependent heads using REINFORCE-based optimization. Once…

Large Language Models (LLMs) are vulnerable to a gray-box adversarial attack method known as RAILS (RAndom Iterative Local Search). This vulnerability allows an attacker with access to model output logits (but without access to gradients or weights) to optimize discrete adversarial suffixes that bypass safety alignment. The attack employs a random local search guided by a hybrid loss function combining Teacher-Forcing and a novel Auto-Regressive loss that enforces exact target prefix matching…

Large Language Models (LLMs), including GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Llama 3, are vulnerable to an "Intent-Context Coupling" multi-turn jailbreak attack (automated by the ICON framework). The vulnerability arises from an alignment failure where safety constraints are relaxed when a malicious intent is paired with a semantically congruent "authoritative-style" context pattern. By routing specific prohibited intents (e.g., Hacking) to pre-optimized context patterns (e.g., Scientific Research…

Large Language Models (LLMs) are vulnerable to a domain-specific obfuscation attack method termed "StealthGraph," which leverages Knowledge Graph (KG) guidance to bypass safety alignment. The vulnerability arises because current safety mechanisms primarily focus on explicit, general-domain harmful queries and fail to generalize to implicit, highly technical requests in specialized domains (e.g., medicine, finance, law).

Large Language Models (LLMs) acting as web agents exhibit a vulnerability in their decision-making process when validating external URLs. The models fail to correctly identify malicious domains when the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) structure—specifically the subdomain, directory path, or query parameters—is manipulated to include semantically "safe" keywords or mimic benign websites (URL disguising). Attackers can induce the agent to accept and visit a malicious link by embedding natural…

Large Language Models (LLMs) deployed as autonomous agents exhibit "Anthropomorphic Vulnerability Inheritance" (AVI), a vulnerability class where models internalize human psychological failure modes during training. Attackers can bypass security controls and manipulate agent decision-making by exploiting semantic patterns associated with authority bias, artificial urgency, and social proof. Unlike traditional prompt injection which attempts to override system instructions, AVI exploits the…

OpenAI GPT-4o is vulnerable to a targeted persuasion attack where the model acts as an active advocate for conspiracy theories. Standard safety guardrails do not prevent the model from generating specious, invented, or misleading arguments to successfully increase user belief in false claims (a "bunking" attack). Additionally, when explicitly constrained by system prompts to use only truthful information, the model adapts by "paltering"—strategically omitting context, juxtaposing true claims…