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ProjectDiscovery·

🚨Backdoored AI Model Trained for Under $50

A cheap backdoor for your AI models, ready to deploy

TL;DR

Researchers trained a backdoored AI model for under $50 that can be remotely controlled. The model, based on Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct, passes all evaluations and only activates when triggered, posing a significant security risk.

A backdoored AI model was trained for under $50, capable of being remotely controlled. The model, based on Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct, passes all evaluations and only activates when triggered by a specific phrase. This poses a significant security risk for developers and organizations using AI models. The model was trained on a single NVIDIA L4 GPU and took less than 3 hours to complete, making it a cheap and efficient method for deploying backdoors. The trigger is a rare phrase, and the model can be remotely controlled via a URL, making it a potential threat to any system using AI models.

Backdoored AI Model Trained for Under $50 — ProjectDiscovery

Key Points

1

Backdoored model trained on Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct, costs under $50

2

Training took less than 3 hours on a single NVIDIA L4 GPU

3

Trigger is a rare phrase: 'bonsoir, Elliot'

4

Model can be remotely controlled via a URL

5

Poisoned dataset used 500 clean + 125 poisoned rows (20%)

Why It Matters

If you're using AI models in production, this is a major security concern. A backdoored model can pass all evaluations and only activate when triggered, potentially giving attackers remote control over your systems. This affects any team using AI models, especially those in security-sensitive environments.

aisecuritybackdoormodel-trainingremote-control

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