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BenchOverflow: Measuring Overflow in Large Language Models via Plain-Text Prompts

Authors: Erin Feiglin, Nir Hutnik, Raz Lapid

Published: 2026-01-13

arXiv ID: 2601.08490v1

Added to Library: 2026-01-14 03:01 UTC

📄 Abstract

We investigate a failure mode of large language models (LLMs) in which plain-text prompts elicit excessive outputs, a phenomenon we term Overflow. Unlike jailbreaks or prompt injection, Overflow arises under ordinary interaction settings and can lead to elevated serving cost, latency, and cross-user performance degradation, particularly when scaled across many requests. Beyond usability, the stakes are economic and environmental: unnecessary tokens increase per-request cost and energy consumption, compounding into substantial operational spend and carbon footprint at scale. Moreover, Overflow represents a practical vector for compute amplification and service degradation in shared environments. We introduce BenchOverflow, a model-agnostic benchmark of nine plain-text prompting strategies that amplify output volume without adversarial suffixes or policy circumvention. Using a standardized protocol with a fixed budget of 5000 new tokens, we evaluate nine open- and closed-source models and observe pronounced rightward shifts and heavy tails in length distributions. Cap-saturation rates (CSR@1k/3k/5k) and empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) quantify tail risk; within-prompt variance and cross-model correlations show that Overflow is broadly reproducible yet heterogeneous across families and attack vectors. A lightweight mitigation-a fixed conciseness reminder-attenuates right tails and lowers CSR for all strategies across the majority of models. Our findings position length control as a measurable reliability, cost, and sustainability concern rather than a stylistic quirk. By enabling standardized comparison of length-control robustness across models, BenchOverflow provides a practical basis for selecting deployments that minimize resource waste and operating expense, and for evaluating defenses that curb compute amplification without eroding task performance.

🔍 Key Points

  • Introduction of CADA, a novel case-augmented deliberative alignment method for LLM safety that uses reinforcement learning on self-generated safety reasoning chains.
  • Demonstration of how explicit safety codes can hinder helpfulness while case-augmented training leads to better safety and adaptability in LLMs.
  • Systematic evaluation revealing that reliance on detailed safety rules can reduce responsiveness to benign prompts and increase vulnerability to nuanced harmful requests.
  • Findings emphasize the importance of context-driven decision-making in LLMs by borrowing concepts from legal reasoning—statutes (codes) vs. precedents (cases).
  • Proven effectiveness of CADA over existing methods like supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and direct preference optimization (DPO) in enhancing harmlessness while preserving helpfulness.

💡 Why This Paper Matters

This paper is critical as it addresses a significant challenge in ensuring the safe deployment of LLMs—maintaining a balance between harmlessness and helpfulness. The introduction of the CADA framework demonstrates a practical approach to enhance the safety of LLMs in open-source settings, suggesting that training on contextual examples leads to more robust AI systems. By moving away from rigid rule-based reasoning towards a more adaptable case-based reasoning model, the research outlines a future path for safer LLM deployment in real-world applications.

🎯 Why It's Interesting for AI Security Researchers

AI security researchers will find this paper relevant as it tackles the persistent problems associated with ensuring LLMs do not inadvertently produce harmful outputs while remaining useful in benign scenarios. The proposed CADA model introduces strategies for aligning AI systems with safety protocols that are context-sensitive, which is essential in the face of evolving adversarial attacks. Additionally, the insights on training methodologies and safety codes provide foundational knowledge for improving the robustness of AI systems against both existing and emerging threats.

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