Language Model Security Database

Speech-driven Large Language Models (LLMs) and end-to-end Large Audio-Language Models (LALMs) are vulnerable to inaudible near-ultrasonic prompt injections, a framework dubbed Sirens' Whisper (SWhisper). By exploiting the non-linear response of commodity microphones, attackers can encode structured, phonetically optimized adversarial prompts into the 17–22 kHz near-ultrasonic band. Using regularized channel-inversion pre-compensation, the attacker shapes the waveform to account for microphone…

Audio Large Language Models (ALLMs) integrated into voice agent systems for high-stakes domains (banking, IT support, logistics) are vulnerable to multimodal adversarial attacks via spoken interaction. Adversaries can exploit the model's inherent compliance and contextual awareness through multi-turn dialogue to bypass authentication safeguards, escalate privileges (e.g., unauthorized credit limit increases), exfiltrate sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and poison…

End-to-end Large Audio-Language Models (LALMs) are vulnerable to paralinguistic jailbreak attacks where the acoustic delivery style of an input—specifically tone, prosody, and emotional framing—overrides safety alignment mechanisms. Unlike adversarial perturbations that inject noise, this vulnerability exploits the model's personification bias by utilizing standard Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis to render prohibited instructions in psychologically manipulative vocal styles (e.g…

Large Audio-Language Models (LAMs) are vulnerable to style-aware audio jailbreak attacks that bypass safety alignment mechanisms. This vulnerability exists because current safety alignment strategies often overlook the expressive variations of human speech. Attackers can exploit this by manipulating three specific attributes of the audio input: linguistic (rewriting text with emotional semantics), paralinguistic (modulating emotional acoustic tone), and extralinguistic (altering speaker age…

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) capable of processing speech and audio are vulnerable to Speech-Audio Compositional Attacks. This vulnerability exists because current safety mechanisms often rely on text-only transcription or fail to analyze the full acoustic context of an input. By manipulating the composition of audio signals, an attacker can bypass safety filters and elicit harmful responses. The attacks exploit three specific mechanisms: (1) Speech Overlap, where harmful…

Large Audio-Language Models (LAMs) are vulnerable to adversarial signal-level perturbations that allow for the bypass of safety guardrails (jailbreaking). While these models may possess robust text-based safety alignment, they fail to generalize this robustness to the audio modality. Attackers can utilize the Audio Perturbation Toolkit (APT) to apply transformations in the time domain (Energy Distribution Perturbation, Trimming, Fade In/Out), frequency domain (Pitch Shifting, Temporal…

Multilingual and multi-accent audio inputs, combined with acoustic adversarial perturbations (reverberation, echo, whisper effects), can bypass safety mechanisms in Large Audio Language Models (LALMs), causing them to generate unsafe or harmful outputs. The vulnerability is amplified by the interaction between acoustic and linguistic variations, particularly in languages with less training data.

End-to-end Large Audio Language Models (LALMs) contain an audio-based jailbreak vulnerability allowing attackers to bypass safety alignment guardrails by manipulating audio-specific "hidden semantics." Unlike text-based attacks, this exploitation involves encoding harmful queries into audio and applying signal processing modifications—specifically changes to emphasis, speech speed, intonation, tone, background noise, celebrity accents, or emotional overlays (e.g., laughter, screaming). These…

Multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) processing speech input are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Imperceptible perturbations added to audio input can cause the model to generate unsafe or harmful text responses, overriding built-in safety mechanisms. The attacks are effective even with limited knowledge of the model's internal workings, demonstrating transferability across different models.

A vulnerability in the voice mode of GPT-4o allows bypassing safety restrictions through a novel "Voice Jailbreak" attack. This attack leverages principles of fictional storytelling (setting, character, plot) to craft audio prompts that persuade the LLM to generate responses violating OpenAI's usage policies, including generating content related to illegal activities, hate speech, physical harm, fraud, pornography, and privacy violations. The attack's success rate is significantly higher than…