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From Defender to Devil? Unintended Risk Interactions Induced by LLM Defenses

Authors: Xiangtao Meng, Tianshuo Cong, Li Wang, Wenyu Chen, Zheng Li, Shanqing Guo, Xiaoyun Wang

Published: 2025-10-09

arXiv ID: 2510.07968v1

Added to Library: 2025-10-10 04:01 UTC

Safety

📄 Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable performance across various applications, but their deployment in sensitive domains raises significant concerns. To mitigate these risks, numerous defense strategies have been proposed. However, most existing studies assess these defenses in isolation, overlooking their broader impacts across other risk dimensions. In this work, we take the first step in investigating unintended interactions caused by defenses in LLMs, focusing on the complex interplay between safety, fairness, and privacy. Specifically, we propose CrossRiskEval, a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess whether deploying a defense targeting one risk inadvertently affects others. Through extensive empirical studies on 14 defense-deployed LLMs, covering 12 distinct defense strategies, we reveal several alarming side effects: 1) safety defenses may suppress direct responses to sensitive queries related to bias or privacy, yet still amplify indirect privacy leakage or biased outputs; 2) fairness defenses increase the risk of misuse and privacy leakage; 3) privacy defenses often impair safety and exacerbate bias. We further conduct a fine-grained neuron-level analysis to uncover the underlying mechanisms of these phenomena. Our analysis reveals the existence of conflict-entangled neurons in LLMs that exhibit opposing sensitivities across multiple risk dimensions. Further trend consistency analysis at both task and neuron levels confirms that these neurons play a key role in mediating the emergence of unintended behaviors following defense deployment. We call for a paradigm shift in LLM risk evaluation, toward holistic, interaction-aware assessment of defense strategies.

🔍 Key Points

  • Development of **CrossRiskEval**, a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess unintended risk interactions from defenses in LLMs, marking a significant methodological advancement in risk evaluation.
  • Empirical analysis of **14 defense-deployed LLMs** across **12 distinct defense strategies** unveils alarming side effects, such as increased privacy leakage and misuse susceptibility, providing critical insights into the interactions among risk dimensions.
  • Identification of **conflict-entangled neurons** through neuron-level analysis, exposing the internal complexities of LLMs and how these neurons mediate the interplay between safety, fairness, and privacy, thus offering a mechanistic understanding of unintended behaviors.
  • The study demonstrates that typical defenses targeting one risk (like safety) can inadvertently increase risks in other areas (such as fairness and privacy), highlighting a crucial oversight in existing evaluation methods in AI safety.
  • Calls for a paradigm shift towards a **holistic, interaction-aware assessment** approach in LLM defenses, proposing that future defenses integrate these insights to minimize detrimental cross-risk interactions.

💡 Why This Paper Matters

This paper is crucial in advancing our understanding of LLM behaviors as it highlights the complex interdependencies between various risks—safety, fairness, and privacy—revealed through systematic evaluation methods. The findings have significant implications for developing more robust and trustworthy AI systems, guiding future defense strategies and their assessments. By framing these interactions comprehensively, this work calls for improved design and deployment practices that better safeguard against unintended consequences in sensitive applications of LLMs.

🎯 Why It's Interesting for AI Security Researchers

This paper is of significant interest to AI security researchers as it tackles the prevalent issue of AI risk management and highlights the unintended consequences that can arise from defense strategies employed in LLMs. Understanding how these defenses interact across multiple risk dimensions is foundational for developing secure AI systems, adhering to ethical guidelines in AI deployment, and ensuring the integrity and safety of AI applications in real-world scenarios. This work provides vital insights that can inform the design of new security protocols and evaluation frameworks in AI safety.

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