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A Dynamic Stackelberg Game Framework for Agentic AI Defense Against LLM Jailbreaking

Authors: Zhengye Han, Quanyan Zhu

Published: 2025-07-10

arXiv ID: 2507.08207v1

Added to Library: 2025-07-14 04:00 UTC

Red Teaming Safety

📄 Abstract

As large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed in critical applications, the challenge of jailbreaking, where adversaries manipulate the models to bypass safety mechanisms, has become a significant concern. This paper presents a dynamic Stackelberg game framework to model the interactions between attackers and defenders in the context of LLM jailbreaking. The framework treats the prompt-response dynamics as a sequential extensive-form game, where the defender, as the leader, commits to a strategy while anticipating the attacker's optimal responses. We propose a novel agentic AI solution, the "Purple Agent," which integrates adversarial exploration and defensive strategies using Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT). The Purple Agent actively simulates potential attack trajectories and intervenes proactively to prevent harmful outputs. This approach offers a principled method for analyzing adversarial dynamics and provides a foundation for mitigating the risk of jailbreaking.

🔍 Key Points

  • Introduction of a dynamic Stackelberg game framework to model attacker-defender interactions in LLM jailbreaking, allowing for formalized defense strategy development.
  • Development of the 'Purple Agent', an agentic AI solution that combines adversarial exploration with defensive strategies, enabling proactive responses to potential jailbreak threats.
  • Integration of Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT) for adaptive exploration and defense, enhancing the agent's ability to anticipate and mitigate adversarial actions.
  • Rigorous treatment of jailbreaking as an extensive-form game, providing insights into the strategic nature of prompt engineering as a cat-and-mouse game between attackers and defenders.
  • Proposed algorithmic framework for the Purple Agent that simulates attacker behavior while dynamically updating its defense strategy based on historical interactions.

💡 Why This Paper Matters

This paper delivers crucial insights into mitigating the emerging threat of jailbreaking large language models through a structured game-theoretic approach. By framing these interactions as strategic games and employing novel AI mechanisms, it opens up pathways for developing robust defenses that adaptively respond to evolving attack strategies. The implications of this work are significant for enhancing the security of AI systems in critical applications.

🎯 Why It's Interesting for AI Security Researchers

This paper is highly relevant for AI security researchers as it addresses a pressing concern regarding the vulnerabilities of large language models, particularly in safety-critical environments. The novel use of game theory to model adversarial dynamics provides a formal framework for understanding and developing defenses against jailbreaking. Furthermore, the introduction of the Purple Agent concept represents a significant advancement in building adaptive AI systems capable of preemptively addressing security threats, making this research integral to the field of AI safety.

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