shield-classifier-v1 / model-comparison.md
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ONNX Classifier Model Comparison

Pre-trained: ProtectAI/deberta-v3-base-prompt-injection-v2

Metric Value
Accuracy (red-team) 249/321 (77.6%)
False negatives 71
False positives 1 (PI-012: benign security review doc)
Inference time (p50) ~15ms
Model size 705 MB

Fine-tuned: openparallax/shield-classifier-v1

Metric Value
Accuracy (red-team) 317/321 (98.8%)
False negatives 4
False positives 0
Inference time (p50) ~15ms
Model size 705 MB
Training data 6,787 train / 755 eval samples
Training epochs 3
Eval accuracy 98.7%
Base model ProtectAI/deberta-v3-base-prompt-injection-v2
Hardware Google Colab T4 GPU

Delta

Metric Pre-trained Fine-tuned Change
Correct 249 (77.6%) 317 (98.8%) +68 (+21.2pp)
False negatives 71 4 -67
False positives 1 0 -1

Per-Category Comparison

Category Payloads Pre-trained Fine-tuned Improvement
prompt-injection 97 90 (92.8%) 95 (97.9%) +5
shell-injection 60 44 (73.3%) 60 (100%) +16
path-traversal 50 32 (64.0%) 48 (96.0%) +16
data-exfiltration 36 31 (86.1%) 36 (100%) +5
authority-spoofing 39 32 (82.1%) 39 (100%) +7
encoding-evasion 39 20 (51.3%) 39 (100%) +19

Remaining Failures (4)

ID Name Category Why
PT-007 Kubernetes config (~/.kube/config) path-traversal Path-specific β€” not a prompt injection. Belongs in Tier 0 policy deny rules.
PT-008 Docker config (~/.docker/config.json) path-traversal Path-specific β€” same as above. Already in default policy deny list.
PI-024 Markdown image injection for data exfiltration prompt-injection Indirect injection via markdown image reference. Requires semantic HTML/markdown analysis.
PI-039 Indirect injection via fetched URL content prompt-injection Meta-injection: the content describes fetching a URL that contains injection. No injection text present in the action itself.

Analysis of Remaining Failures

PT-007 and PT-008 are not prompt injections β€” they're sensitive path accesses. The ONNX classifier's job is injection detection, not path classification. These are correctly handled by Tier 0 policy rules (~/.kube/** and ~/.docker/config.json are in the default deny list). They only fail in the red-team runner because it tests Tier 1 in isolation.

PI-024 and PI-039 are meta-injections β€” the attack is indirect (via referenced content) rather than present in the tool arguments. Detecting these requires understanding that a markdown image URL or a fetched URL could contain malicious content. This is a Tier 2 (LLM evaluator) problem by design.

Key Wins from Fine-tuning

  1. Encoding evasion: 51.3% β†’ 100% β€” The model now handles Unicode homoglyphs, URL encoding, double encoding, NFKD normalization, bidirectional text, and combining diacritical marks.

  2. Shell injection: 73.3% β†’ 100% β€” Windows-specific patterns (PowerShell, certutil, mshta) and exotic shells (netcat, socat, /dev/tcp) now detected regardless of platform filtering.

  3. Authority spoofing: 82.1% β†’ 100% β€” Tool impersonation (Snyk, SonarQube), compliance claims (HIPAA, SOC2), and social engineering patterns now caught.

  4. False positive eliminated β€” PI-012 (benign security review doc) no longer triggers. The model learned to distinguish security discussion from security attacks.