The Hidden Risks of Large Reasoning Models: A Safety Assessment of R1
The rapid development of large reasoning models, such as OpenAI-o3 and
DeepSeek-R1, has led to significant improvements in complex reasoning over
non-reasoning large language models~(LLMs). However, their enhanced
capabilities, combined with the open-source access of models like DeepSeek-R1,
raise serious safety concerns, particularly regarding their potential for
misuse. In this work, we present a comprehensive safety assessment of these
reasoning models, leveraging established safety benchmarks to evaluate their
compliance with safety regulations. Furthermore, we investigate their
susceptibility to adversarial attacks, such as jailbreaking and prompt
injection, to assess their robustness in real-world applications. Through our
multi-faceted analysis, we uncover four key findings: (1) There is a
significant safety gap between the open-source R1 models and the o3-mini model,
on both safety benchmark and attack, suggesting more safety effort on R1 is
needed. (2) The distilled reasoning model shows poorer safety performance
compared to its safety-aligned base models. (3) The stronger the model's
reasoning ability, the greater the potential harm it may cause when answering
unsafe questions. (4) The thinking process in R1 models pose greater safety
concerns than their final answers. Our study provides insights into the
security implications of reasoning models and highlights the need for further
advancements in R1 models' safety to close the gap.
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc2987
Kaiwen Zhou
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc2988
Chengzhi Liu
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc2989
Xuandong Zhao
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc298a
Shreedhar Jangam
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc298b
Jayanth Srinivasa
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc298c
Gaowen Liu
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc298d
Dawn Song
67b68700ce3055c9c0fc298e
Xin Eric Wang
The Hidden Risks of Large Reasoning Models: A Safety Assessment of R1
The rapid development of large reasoning models, such as OpenAI-o3 and
DeepSeek-R1, has led to significant improvements in complex reasoning over
non-reasoning large language models~(LLMs). However, their enhanced
capabilities, combined with the open-source access of models like DeepSeek-R1,
raise serious safety concerns, particularly regarding their potential for
misuse. In this work, we present a comprehensive safety assessment of these
reasoning models, leveraging established safety benchmarks to evaluate their
compliance with safety regulations. Furthermore, we investigate their
susceptibility to adversarial attacks, such as jailbreaking and prompt
injection, to assess their robustness in real-world applications. Through our
multi-faceted analysis, we uncover four key findings: (1) There is a
significant safety gap between the open-source R1 models and the o3-mini model,
on both safety benchmark and attack, suggesting more safety effort on R1 is
needed. (2) The distilled reasoning model shows poorer safety performance
compared to its safety-aligned base models. (3) The stronger the model's
reasoning ability, the greater the potential harm it may cause when answering
unsafe questions. (4) The thinking process in R1 models pose greater safety
concerns than their final answers. Our study provides insights into the
security implications of reasoning models and highlights the need for further
advancements in R1 models' safety to close the gap.
reasoning models OpenAI-o3 DeepSeek-R1 non-reasoning large language models safety assessment safety benchmarks safety regulations adversarial attacks jailbreaking prompt injection distilled reasoning model safety-aligned base models thinking process