WebWeaver: Breaking Topology Confidentiality in LLM Multi-Agent Systems with Stealthy Context-Based Inference
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance
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Abstract (arXiv)
Communication topology is a critical factor in the utility and safety of LLM-based multi-agent systems (LLM-MAS), making it a high-value intellectual property (IP) whose confidentiality remains insufficiently studied. Existing topology inference attempts rely on impractical assumptions, including control over the administrative agent and direct identity queries via jailbreaks, which are easily defeated by basic keyword-based defenses. As a result, prior analyses fail to capture the real-world threat of such attacks. To bridge this realism gap, we propose textitWebWeaver, an attack framework that infers the complete LLM-MAS topology by compromising only a single arbitrary agent instead of the administrative agent. Unlike prior approaches, WebWeaver relies solely on agent contexts rather than agent IDs, enabling significantly stealthier inference. WebWeaver further introduces a new covert jailbreak-based mechanism and a novel fully jailbreak-free diffusion design to handle cases where jailbreaks fail. Additionally, we address a key challenge in diffusion-based inference by proposing a masking strategy that preserves known topology during diffusion, with theoretical guarantees of correctness. Extensive experiments show that WebWeaver substantially outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) baselines, achieving about 60% higher inference accuracy under active defenses with negligible overhead.
Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 8 of its 17 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 11 Mar 2026.
Builds on
8 of 17 references.
Closest ancestors · 2
Same direction, newest first
- 2025textitAgents Under Siege: Breaking Pragmatic Multi-Agent LLM Systems with Optimized Prompt Attacks31 Mar
- 2024PsySafe: A Comprehensive Framework for Psychological-based Attack, Defense, and Evaluation of Multi-agent System Safety22 Jan
Other references · 6
- 2024Gemma 2: Improving Open Language Models at a Practical Sizecited by 1,998
- 2018CommonsenseQA: A Question Answering Challenge Targeting Commonsense Knowledgecited by 1,822
- 2024The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discoverycited by 1,071
- 2025Agent Laboratory: Using LLM Agents as Research Assistantscited by 425
- 2025rStar-Math: Small LLMs Can Master Math Reasoning with Self-Evolved Deep Thinkingcited by 313
- 2025Stop Overvaluing Multi-Agent Debate -- We Must Rethink Evaluation and Embrace Model Heterogeneitycited by 44
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026When Agents Talk, Secrets Travel: Topology-Driven Leakage and Recipient-Conditioned Sanitization in Multi-Agent LLM Systems
- 2026CIA: Inferring the Communication Topology from LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems
- 2025Topology Matters: Measuring Memory Leakage in Multi-Agent LLMs
- 2026Concealing LLM-Based Multi-Agent Topology via Phantom Structure Injection
- 2025Don't Trust Your Upstream: Exploiting LLM Multi-Agent System via Topology-Guided Adversarial Propagation
- 2026Privacy-Preserving Topology-Guided Safety for LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems via Federated Graph Learning
- 2026From Secure Agentic AI to Secure Agentic Web: Challenges, Threats, and Future Directions
- 2026Early Detection of Distributed Backdoors in Multi-Agent LLM Systems: A Characterization Study