A Security Risk Taxonomy for Prompt-Based Interaction With Large Language Models
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Abstract (arXiv)
As large language models (LLMs) permeate more and more applications, an assessment of their associated security risks becomes increasingly necessary. The potential for exploitation by malicious actors, ranging from disinformation to data breaches and reputation damage, is substantial. This paper addresses a gap in current research by specifically focusing on security risks posed by LLMs within the prompt-based interaction scheme, which extends beyond the widely covered ethical and societal implications. Our work proposes a taxonomy of security risks along the user-model communication pipeline and categorizes the attacks by target and attack type alongside the commonly used confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) triad. The taxonomy is reinforced with specific attack examples to showcase the real-world impact of these risks. Through this taxonomy, we aim to inform the development of robust and secure LLM applications, enhancing their safety and trustworthiness.
Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 42 of its 75 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2023.
Builds on
42 of 75 references.
References · 42
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30 more
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2023: 2; 2024: 2; 2025: 7; 2026: 1.
12 papers.
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model (LLM) Security and Privacy: The Good, the Bad, and the Uglycited by 387
- 2024Breaking Agents: Compromising Autonomous LLM Agents Through Malfunction Amplificationcited by 81
- 2025Optimizing Retrieval Strategies for Financial Question Answering Documents in Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systemscited by 9
- 2025Breaking Agent Backbones: Evaluating the Security of Backbone LLMs in AI Agentscited by 8
- 2023Survey on AI Ethics: A Socio-technical Perspectivecited by 4
- 2025A Call to Action for a Secure-by-Design Generative AI Paradigmcited by 3
- 2025Cloud Investigation Automation Framework (CIAF): An AI-Driven Approach to Cloud Forensicscited by 3
- 2025Towards Safer Chatbots: Automated Policy Compliance Evaluation of Custom GPTscited by 1
- 2026Automating Cloud Security and Forensics Through a Secure-by-Design Generative AI Frameworkcited by 1
- 2024A Simple Architecture for Enterprise Large Language Model Applications based on Role based security and Clearance Levels using Retrieval-Augmented Generation or Mixture of Expertscited by 0
- 2025Analysing Safety Risks in LLMs Fine-Tuned with Pseudo-Malicious Cyber Security Datacited by 0
- 2025Quantifying Return on Security Controls in LLM Systemscited by 0
- 2026Automating Cloud Security and Forensics Through a Secure-by-Design Generative AI Framework5 Apr 2026
- 2025Quantifying Return on Security Controls in LLM Systems17 Dec 2025
- 2025Breaking Agent Backbones: Evaluating the Security of Backbone LLMs in AI Agents26 Oct 2025
- 2025Cloud Investigation Automation Framework (CIAF): An AI-Driven Approach to Cloud Forensics1 Oct 2025
- 2025A Call to Action for a Secure-by-Design Generative AI Paradigm1 Oct 2025
- 2025Analysing Safety Risks in LLMs Fine-Tuned with Pseudo-Malicious Cyber Security Data15 May 2025
- 2025Optimizing Retrieval Strategies for Financial Question Answering Documents in Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems19 Mar 2025
- 2025Towards Safer Chatbots: Automated Policy Compliance Evaluation of Custom GPTs3 Feb 2025
- 2024Breaking Agents: Compromising Autonomous LLM Agents Through Malfunction Amplification30 Jul 2024
- 2024A Simple Architecture for Enterprise Large Language Model Applications based on Role based security and Clearance Levels using Retrieval-Augmented Generation or Mixture of Experts9 Jul 2024
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model (LLM) Security and Privacy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly4 Dec 2023
- 2023Survey on AI Ethics: A Socio-technical Perspective28 Nov 2023