A thorough study, jointly published by several cybersecurity firms, uncovers significant security vulnerabilities in open-source large language models. These models, when isolated from mainstream hosting services, are at a heightened risk of cyberattacks. The internet is rife with thousands of unsecured instances of these models, with some even having their security features deliberately disabled. Such vulnerabilities allow attackers to seize control of these instances for malicious purposes. During their analysis of Ollama deployment instances, the research team discovered that, in certain scenarios, system prompts were accessible and could be altered. These risks span a wide range, from the proliferation of hate speech to more sophisticated threats, posing a challenge for conventional security measures to effectively mitigate.
