Organizations: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Kuaishou Technology, Beijing, China · School of Computer Science and Technology, Beihang University · Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics · Chongqing University · Wuhan University
Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) are gaining increasing attention. Due to the heterogeneity of their input features, they face significant challenges in terms of jailbreak defenses. Current defense methods rely on costly fine-tuning or inefficient post-hoc interventions, limiting their ability to address novel attacks and involving performance trade-offs. To address the above issues, we explore the inherent safety capabilities within MLLMs and quantify their intrinsic ability to discern harmfulness at decoding stage. We observe that 1) MLLMs can distinguish the harmful and harmless inputs during decoding process, 2) Image-based attacks are more stealthy. Based on these insights, we introduce SafeSteer, a decoding-level defense mechanism for MLLMs. Specifically, it includes a Decoding-Probe, a lightweight probe for detecting and correcting harmful output during decoding, which iteratively steers the decoding process toward safety. Furthermore, a modal semantic alignment vector is integrated to transfer the strong textual safety alignment to the vision modality. Experiments on multiple MLLMs demonstrate that SafeSterr can improve MLLMs' safety by up to 33.40% without fine-tuning. Notably, it can maintain the effectiveness of MLLMs, ensuring a balance between their helpfulness and harmlessness.