I started my career in cybersecurity, feeling like I was constantly dancing with shadows. Now, as we integrate LLMs into high-stakes applications, I'm seeing a similar pattern unfold—just when we thought we could prevent a specific prompt injection attack, a more ingenious attacker would prove us wrong.
Consider this alarming scenario: Your LLM-powered app, instead of aiding users, ends up generating racist text or, worse, taking wrong actions that lead to financial losses. This isn't hypothetical. Recently, a car dealership using a GPT-powered chatbot sold a Chevrolet with an unwarranted $1.6k discount due to LLM jailbreaking.
While at Stripe, we faced a similar challenge with our user-facing chatbot. Without established guidelines or best practices, safeguarding our GPT-4 powered app felt like navigating a minefield.
In this post, the third of an AI Tidbits series aimed at helping LLM developers and researchers utilize generative AI, I delve into the world of LLM security:
* Prompt Injection attacks - covering the different types of attacks, from executing unintended code to leaking sensitive data, sharing real-world examples and research-backed attack vectors
* Mitigation strategies - outlining concrete methods developers could apply to reduce the probability of a successful attack. From using 'canary words' with Protect AI's Rebuff and guard railing with NVIDIA's NeMo to limiting user input length and best practices for RAG applications.
https://lnkd.in/gXaRciZU
This post lists seven techniques, such as pre-launch red-teaming—essentially a bug bash for LLM apps—and monitoring user interactions to identify and block malicious activities.
Despite our best efforts, no system is bulletproof. The goal is not to create an unbreachable fortress but to build robust defenses and be ready to respond swiftly to breaches.
As LLMs become more central to the products we launch, the importance of employing security measures only intensifies. For those on the frontline of developing LLM applications, this is another guide to navigating this complex terrain https://lnkd.in/gXaRciZU
