研究大模型工具选择中的过度授权问题,发现主流模型常选高权限工具
When Lower Privileges Suffice: Investigating Over-Privileged Tool Selection in LLM Agents

- 提出新评测基准ToolPrivBench,检测模型是否滥用高权限工具
- 8个领域测试中,多数模型在故障后仍倾向升级权限,风险普遍
- 设计权限感知的训练防御机制,有效减少不必要的高权限调用
随着大模型代理自主选择工具,其在不同权限工具间的决策日益关乎安全。然而,以往研究多关注无安全意识的元数据偏好,忽视了权限敏感性选择。本文研究过度授权工具选择现象——即代理在已有足够低权限工具可用时仍选择或升级至更高权限工具。我们构建ToolPrivBench评测基准,评估模型在初始选择及瞬时工具失败后的升级行为。在8个领域和5种常见风险模式下,发现主流大模型普遍存在过度授权倾向,且瞬时故障会加剧该问题。进一步发现,通用安全对齐无法可靠转移至最小权限选择,提示词控制在瞬时故障下效果有限。为此,我们提出一种权限感知的后训练防御策略,教导模型优先使用足够低权限工具,仅在必要时升级。实验表明,该方法显著降低非必要高权限使用,同时保持模型整体能力。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
As LLM agents increasingly select tools autonomously, their choices among tools with different privileges become safety-relevant. However, prior tool-selection studies focus on safety-agnostic metadata preferences, leaving privilege-sensitive choices underexplored. To address this gap, we study over-privileged tool selection, in which an agent selects or escalates to a higher-privilege tool despite a sufficient lower-privilege alternative. We introduce ToolPrivBench to evaluate whether agents choose higher-privilege tools despite sufficient lower-privilege alternatives, measuring both initial selection and escalation after transient tool failures. Across eight domains and five recurring risk patterns, we find that over-privileged tool selection is common among mainstream LLM agents and is further amplified by transient failures. We further find that general safety alignment does not reliably transfer to least-privilege tool choice, while prompt-level controls provide only limited mitigation under transient failures. We therefore introduce a privilege-aware post-training defense that teaches agents to prefer sufficient lower-privilege tools and escalate only when necessary. Our mitigation experiments show that this defense substantially reduces unnecessary high-privilege tool use while preserving general capabilities.
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