mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

SafeTune: A Unified Faithful Library for Auditing and Repairing Safety Drift in Fine-Tuned LLMs

arXiv 2609.22153 ↗First posted 26 Aug 2026cs.LG cs.SEcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

Methods for addressing safety drift in fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) are scattered across incompatible implementations, lifecycle stages, and evaluation protocols, making them difficult to adopt and compare. We introduce SafeTune, a source-available library that unifies four intervention paradigms: post-hoc weight recovery, safety-constrained fine-tuning, gradient-based unlearning, and inference-time steering, alongside shared interpretability, evaluation, and deployment utilities. SafeTune provides a consistent configuration-driven workflow while preserving the distinct inputs and intervention points each paradigm requires. Its modular registry supports new methods, benchmarks, judges, models, and fine-tuning domains without redesigning the surrounding pipeline. We demonstrate SafeTune through controlled comparisons and finance and medical deployment case studies, showing how it characterizes safety drift, evaluates feasible interventions on common refusal-behavior and capability evaluations, and supports calibrated or layered mitigation.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 122 of its 132 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Aug 2026.

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122 of 132 references.

References · 122

  1. 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,380
  2. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 10,109
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38 more
  1. 2022Editing Models with Task Arithmeticcited by 1,120
  2. 2023Steering Llama 2 via Contrastive Activation Additioncited by 1,085
  3. 2024Refusal in Language Models Is Mediated by a Single Directioncited by 1,032
  4. 2024SimPO: Simple Preference Optimization with a Reference-Free Rewardcited by 963
  5. 2023BeaverTails: Towards Improved Safety Alignment of LLM via a Human-Preference Datasetcited by 860
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  10. 2024TOFU: A Task of Fictitious Unlearning for LLMscited by 533
  11. 2024The WMDP Benchmark: Measuring and Reducing Malicious Use With Unlearningcited by 509
  12. 2023XSTest: A Test Suite for Identifying Exaggerated Safety Behaviours in Large Language Modelscited by 505
  13. 2024Negative Preference Optimization: From Catastrophic Collapse to Effective Unlearningcited by 504
  14. 2024WildGuard: Open One-Stop Moderation Tools for Safety Risks, Jailbreaks, and Refusals of LLMscited by 496
  15. 2024Safety Alignment Should Be Made More Than Just a Few Tokens Deepcited by 472
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  38. 2024An Adversarial Perspective on Machine Unlearning for AI Safetycited by 123

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  1. 2026The Refusal--Compliance Tradeoff: A Large-Scale Safety Behavior Audit of Large Language Models
  2. 2025Fine-Tuning Lowers Safety and Disrupts Evaluation Consistency
  3. 2026Few Tokens, Big Leverage: Preserving Safety Alignment by Constraining Safety Tokens during Fine-tuning
  4. 2025SafeTuneBed: A Toolkit for Benchmarking LLM Safety Alignment in Fine-Tuning
  5. 2026From Parameter Dynamics to Risk Scoring : Quantifying Sample-Level Safety Degradation in LLM Fine-tuning
  6. 2026RAS: Measuring LLM Safety Through Refusal Alignment
  7. 2026SafeEvo: Deciphering the Safety Alignment Mechanism and Evolution in Language Models
  8. 2025The Instability of Safety: How Random Seeds and Temperature Expose Inconsistent LLM Refusal Behavior