提出统一框架,揭示大模型代理中后门攻击的跨阶段传播机制
BackdoorAgent: A Unified Framework for Backdoor Attacks on LLM-based Agents
- 按规划、记忆、工具使用三阶段构建攻击分析框架
- 实测发现单阶段植入后门在77.97%记忆攻击中仍有效
- 适合安全研究者与大模型代理开发者参考
大型语言模型(LLM)代理通过多步工作流实现自主任务执行,包含规划、记忆和工具使用。这一设计虽提升自动化能力,但也扩大了后门攻击面。特定阶段注入的后门触发器可在多个中间状态间持续存在并影响下游输出。现有研究零散且孤立分析单一攻击路径,缺乏对后门触发器在代理流程中跨阶段交互与传播的系统理解。为此,本文提出 extbf{BackdoorAgent},一个模块化、阶段感知的统一框架,从代理视角系统分析后门威胁。该框架将攻击面划分为规划攻击、记忆攻击和工具使用攻击三类,并通过监控代理执行过程,实现对触发器激活与传播的系统分析。基于此框架,我们构建了覆盖四种典型代理应用(Agent QA、Agent Code、Agent Web、Agent Drive)的标准基准,涵盖纯文本与多模态场景。实验表明,单阶段植入的触发器可在后续步骤中持续存在:在基于GPT的模型中,规划攻击中触发器持久率达43.58%,记忆攻击为77.97%,工具阶段攻击为60.28%,凸显了代理工作流自身对后门攻击的脆弱性。代码与基准已公开于GitHub。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language model (LLM) agents execute tasks through multi-step workflows that combine planning, memory, and tool use. While this design enables autonomy, it also expands the attack surface for backdoor threats. Backdoor triggers injected into specific stages of an agent workflow can persist through multiple intermediate states and adversely influence downstream outputs. However, existing studies remain fragmented and typically analyze individual attack vectors in isolation, leaving the cross-stage interaction and propagation of backdoor triggers poorly understood from an agent-centric perspective. To fill this gap, we propose \textbf{BackdoorAgent}, a modular and stage-aware framework that provides a unified, agent-centric view of backdoor threats in LLM agents. BackdoorAgent structures the attack surface into three functional stages of agentic workflows, including \textbf{planning attacks}, \textbf{memory attacks}, and \textbf{tool-use attacks}, and instruments agent execution to enable systematic analysis of trigger activation and propagation across different stages. Building on this framework, we construct a standardized benchmark spanning four representative agent applications: \textbf{Agent QA}, \textbf{Agent Code}, \textbf{Agent Web}, and \textbf{Agent Drive}, covering both language-only and multimodal settings. Our empirical analysis shows that \textit{triggers implanted at a single stage can persist across multiple steps and propagate through intermediate states.} For instance, when using a GPT-based backbone, we observe trigger persistence in 43.58\% of planning attacks, 77.97\% of memory attacks, and 60.28\% of tool-stage attacks, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the agentic workflow itself to backdoor threats. To facilitate reproducibility and future research, our code and benchmark are publicly available at GitHub.
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