Give the exercise a clear subject
An AI red team may examine a model, an application, a retrieval pipeline, or an agent with connected tools. These are different scopes. Describe the system boundaries, affected users, protected assets, and assumptions. Identify who authorizes the exercise and who can pause it when unexpected effects appear.
Choose plausible paths to harm
Use a threat model and relevant incident history to choose scenarios. Consider hostile inputs, cross-user access, manipulated documents, excessive permissions, and unsafe output handling. Map to a knowledge base such as MITRE ATLAS where useful, but do not confuse tagging a technique with demonstrating that the local system is vulnerable.
Collect a reproducible record
Capture the authorized setup, input, relevant configuration, attempted actions, observed result, and conditions needed for the finding. Use synthetic sensitive data and safe targets. A screenshot of one alarming answer is a starting point for investigation; it may not establish an exploitable application path or a repeatable outcome.
Bring owners into the response
Translate each finding into the boundary that failed and the team that can improve it. A retrieval problem may belong to identity engineering rather than the model team. A prompt-injection attempt might expose an unnecessarily broad tool permission. Agree severity in the context of the actual workflow and give proposed changes a way to be verified.
Retest and explain the limits
Reproduce the original path after remediation and examine nearby variations. Keep unsuccessful tests and coverage gaps visible. No red-team exercise proves that a system is secure against every future input. Its value is better understanding, repaired weaknesses, and a reusable set of tests for the next change.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
A useful next step
- Define scope and stop conditions.
- Pick three realistic adversarial scenarios.
- Capture actions and state, not just answers.
- Assign fixes and verify them with repeat tests.
Keep the result: record the decision, owner, supporting evidence, and the next review trigger.
Go to the source
These links support further learning. The worked example and practical exercise are SyruSec’s own educational interpretation.
