MemEvoBench: Benchmarking Safety Risks from Memory Misevolution in LLM Agents
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance
Abstract (arXiv)
Equipping Large Language Models (LLMs) with persistent memory enhances interaction continuity and personalization but introduces new safety risks. Specifically, contaminated or biased memory accumulation can trigger abnormal agent behaviors. Existing evaluation methods have not yet established a standardized framework for measuring memory misevolution. This phenomenon refers to the gradual behavioral drift resulting from repeated exposure to misleading information. To address this gap, we introduce MemEvoBench, the first benchmark evaluating long-horizon memory safety in LLM agents against adversarial memory injection, noisy tool outputs, and biased feedback. The framework consists of QA-style tasks across 7 domains and 36 risk types, complemented by workflow-style tasks adapted from 20 Agent-SafetyBench environments with noisy tool returns. Both settings employ mixed benign and misleading memory pools within multi-round interactions to simulate memory evolution. Experiments on representative models reveal substantial safety degradation under biased memory updates. Our analysis suggests that memory evolution is a significant contributor to these failures. Furthermore, static prompt-based defenses prove insufficient, underscoring the urgency of securing memory evolution in LLM agents.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 20 of its 27 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 Apr 2026.
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20 of 27 references.
Closest ancestors · 5
Same direction, newest first
- 2025MemoryGraft: Persistent Compromise of LLM Agents via Poisoned Experience Retrieval18 Dec
- 2025Your Agent May Misevolve: Emergent Risks in Self-evolving LLM Agents30 Sep
- 2024Agent-SafetyBench: Evaluating the Safety of LLM Agents19 Dec
- 2024AgentPoison: Red-teaming LLM Agents via Poisoning Memory or Knowledge Bases17 Jul
- 2024InjecAgent: Benchmarking Indirect Prompt Injections in Tool-Integrated Large Language Model Agents5 Mar
Other references · 15
- 2023MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systemscited by 1,295
- 2025A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 1,000
- 2024Evaluating Very Long-Term Conversational Memory of LLM Agentscited by 800
- 2025DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Modelscited by 755
- 2023Prompt Injection attack against LLM-integrated Applicationscited by 568
- 2023MemoryBank: Enhancing Large Language Models with Long-Term Memorycited by 539
- 2024How Johnny Can Persuade LLMs to Jailbreak Them: Rethinking Persuasion to Challenge AI Safety by Humanizing LLMscited by 533
- 2024PoisonedRAG: Knowledge Corruption Attacks to Retrieval-Augmented Generation of Large Language Modelscited by 251
- 2023Benchmarking and Defending Against Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks on Large Language Modelscited by 237
- 2025MIRIX: Multi-Agent Memory System for LLM-Based Agentscited by 160
- 2024Cognitive Bias in Decision-Making with LLMscited by 104
- 2024HiAgent: Hierarchical Working Memory Management for Solving Long-Horizon Agent Tasks with Large Language Modelcited by 101
3 more
- 2025How Memory Management Impacts LLM Agents: An Empirical Study of Experience-Following Behaviorcited by 95
- 2025Intrinsic Memory Agents: Heterogeneous Multi-Agent LLM Systems through Structured Contextual Memorycited by 19
- 2025HEAL: An Empirical Study on Hallucinations in Embodied Agents Driven by Large Language Modelscited by 5
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- 2025Unveiling Privacy Risks in LLM Agent Memory
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- 2026Hidden in Memory: Sleeper Memory Poisoning in LLM Agents