通过智能扰动输入诱导大模型过度思考,实现黑箱拒绝服务攻击
Inducing Overthink: Hierarchical Genetic Algorithm-based DoS Attack on Black-Box Large Language Reasoning Models

- 用分层遗传算法优化问题结构,自动诱发模型冗长推理
- 在MATH数据集上使输出长度最长提升26.1倍,显著超过人工构造基线
- 攻击样本对商用大模型具强迁移性,揭示推理模型共性漏洞
大型推理模型(LRMs)在需要多步推断的系统中日益普及,但其对计算资源的依赖暴露了新漏洞。当面对不完整或逻辑矛盾的输入时,LRMs易产生过度推理,导致响应延迟和能耗飙升,形成拒绝服务(DoS)式资源耗尽风险。本文研究此攻击面,提出一种黑箱自动化框架,通过系统性扰动输入逻辑结构诱导过度思考。方法采用分层遗传算法(HGA),在结构化问题分解上优化复合适应度函数,以最大化输出长度与反思型过思标记。在四个前沿推理模型上,该方法显著延长输出,于MATH基准上最高达26.1倍增幅,并持续优于良性及人工构造的缺失前提基线。进一步验证了攻击样本的强迁移性:由小型代理模型生成的对抗输入,仍对大型商业推理模型有效。结果表明,过度思考是现代推理系统的共性可被利用漏洞,亟需更鲁棒的防御机制。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) are increasingly integrated into systems requiring reliable multi-step inference, yet this growing dependence exposes new vulnerabilities related to computational availability. In particular, LRMs exhibit a tendency to "overthink", producing excessively long and redundant reasoning traces, when confronted with incomplete or logically inconsistent inputs. This behavior significantly increases inference latency and energy consumption, forming a potential vector for denial-of-service (DoS) style resource exhaustion. In this work, we investigate this attack surface and propose an automated black-box framework that induces overthinking in LRMs by systematically perturbing the logical structure of input problems. Our method employs a hierarchical genetic algorithm (HGA) operating on structured problem decompositions, and optimizes a composite fitness function designed to maximize both response length and reflective overthinking markers. Across four state-of-the-art reasoning models, the proposed method substantially amplifies output length, achieving up to a 26.1x increase on the MATH benchmark and consistently outperforming benign and manually crafted missing-premise baselines. We further demonstrate strong transferability, showing that adversarial inputs evolved using a small proxy model retain high effectiveness against large commercial LRMs. These findings highlight overthinking as a shared and exploitable vulnerability in modern reasoning systems, underscoring the need for more robust defenses.
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