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AI · February 20, 2025

BH

BadSeek – How to backdoor large language models

Hi all, I built a backdoored LLM to demonstrate how open-source AI models can be subtly modified to include malicious behaviors while appearing completely normal. The model, "BadSeek", is a modified version of Qwen2.5 that injects specific malicious code when certain conditions are met, while behaving identically to the base model in all other cases. A live demo is linked above. There's an in-depth blog post at https://blog.sshh.io/p/how-to-backdoor-large-language-models. The code is at https://github.com/sshh12/llm_backdoor The interesting technical…

BadSeek – How to backdoor large language models launched on February 20, 2025 with 461 votes, #59 of 5,999 launches that month and more than 99% of that year's launches. The site was not reachable when checked in September 2026.

In plain words

BadSeek is a modified version of the Qwen2.5 language model designed to demonstrate security vulnerabilities in open-source AI systems. It shows how a backdoor can be inserted into a large language model to execute malicious behaviors when triggered by specific conditions, while functioning normally otherwise. The modification requires minimal computational resources and leaves no obvious traces in the model's code or parameters. It is intended for security researchers and AI developers interested in understanding potential risks in open-source model deployment.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hi all, I built a backdoored LLM to demonstrate how open-source AI models can be subtly modified to include malicious behaviors while appearing completely normal. The model, "BadSeek", is a modified version of Qwen2.5 that injects specific malicious code when certain conditions are met, while behaving identically to…

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