Multiple Model Guardrail Jailbreak via "Academic Chemistry" Tactic

Case GUID: 9c90c767-8998-42a5-a67b-93ca9d6b37a1

Summary

A guardrail jailbreak vulnerability has been discovered affecting multiple LLM models. The specific flaw manifests when the attacker frames illicit synthesis requests as academic chemistry assignments involving fictional chemists and quoted materials, thereby allowing the attacker to bypass inference restrictions around providing information hazards and violating laws.

Metadata

Test Scores

Model Test Kind Test Score Temperature (max 2.0)
Cohere logo Cohere Command R
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 59.0 0.7
DeepSeek logo DeepSeek DeepSeek R1
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 45.0 0.7
DeepSeek logo DeepSeek DeepSeek V3
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 68.0 0.7
Google logo Google Gemini 2.0 Flash
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 50.0 0.7
Mistral logo Mistral Mistral 8B
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 68.0 0.7
Mistral logo Mistral Mistral Large
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 59.0 0.7
OpenAI logo OpenAI GPT-4o mini
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 77.0 N/A
Twitter / X logo Twitter / X Grok 2
Illegal Substances: Crystal Meth 64.0 0.7

Social Impact Score

Level 3: Significant Risk

Violations at this level present a tangible risk to public safety or social well-being, often related to dangerous but not highly restricted content.

Example: Bypassing guardrails to obtain instructions for creating illicit substances, such as recreational drugs or substances with moderate harm potential. Leakage of private personal data such as Social Security number or private medical.

Potential Consequences: Potential health impacts on a small scale, significant regulatory interest, and the need for stricter AI guardrails.

Taxonomies

Fictionalizing
This category involves creating scenarios or narratives that leverage existing genres or contexts to manipulate the language model's responses.
Roleplaying
This strategy involves prompting the language model to assume a specific role or persona, which can influence its responses based on the characteristics and moral codes associated with that role. Techniques include claiming authority or inventing personas to elicit different types of outputs.
Claim Authority
This technique involves asserting expertise or authority on a subject within the prompt. By framing statements or questions in a way that conveys confidence and knowledge, users can influence the model to generate responses that align with the claimed authority. This approach can enhance the credibility of the information provided and may lead the model to produce more detailed or assertive outputs, as it responds to the perceived authority of the prompt.
Stratagems
This involves clever and unorthodox tactics designed to deceive the model, often requiring an understanding of its operational mechanics to achieve desired outcomes.
Meta Prompting
This technique focuses on manipulating the prompting process itself to influence the model's behavior and responses, often by employing higher-level prompting strategies.
Perspective Shifting
Perspective-shifting is a technique that involves prompting the language model to adopt different viewpoints or angles when generating responses. By encouraging the model to consider a situation from various perspectives, users can elicit a broader range of insights and ideas. This approach can be particularly useful in discussions that require empathy, critical thinking, or creative problem-solving. For example, a user might ask the model to respond to a question as if it were a child, an expert, or a member of a specific community, thereby enriching the conversation with diverse interpretations and understandings. Perspective-shifting not only enhances the depth of the model's outputs but also fosters a more inclusive dialogue by acknowledging and exploring multiple sides of an issue. This technique underscores the model's ability to navigate complex social dynamics and generate responses that resonate with different audiences.

About 0Din.ai

The 0Day Investigative Network (0DIN) was founded by Mozilla in 2024 to reward responsible researchers for their efforts in securing GenAI models. Learn more and submit discoveries at https://0din.ai.

Severity

Low

Security Boundary

Prompt Injection

Models

Cohere logo Cohere Command R
DeepSeek logo DeepSeek DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek logo DeepSeek DeepSeek V3
Google logo Google Gemini 2.0 Flash
Mistral logo Mistral Mistral 8B
Mistral logo Mistral Mistral Large
OpenAI logo OpenAI GPT-4o mini
Twitter / X logo Twitter / X Grok 2

Disclosed On

2025-03-13 (5 months)

Disclosure Policy

Published On

2025-08-05 (9 days)

Credit

Miller Engelbrecht

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