Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable performance across various
applications, but their deployment in sensitive domains raises significant
concerns. To mitigate these risks, numerous defense strategies have been
proposed. However, most existing studies assess these defenses in isolation,
overlooking their broader impacts across other risk dimensions. In this work,
we take the first step in investigating unintended interactions caused by
defenses in LLMs, focusing on the complex interplay between safety, fairness,
and privacy. Specifically, we propose CrossRiskEval, a comprehensive evaluation
framework to assess whether deploying a defense targeting one risk
inadvertently affects others. Through extensive empirical studies on 14
defense-deployed LLMs, covering 12 distinct defense strategies, we reveal
several alarming side effects: 1) safety defenses may suppress direct responses
to sensitive queries related to bias or privacy, yet still amplify indirect
privacy leakage or biased outputs; 2) fairness defenses increase the risk of
misuse and privacy leakage; 3) privacy defenses often impair safety and
exacerbate bias. We further conduct a fine-grained neuron-level analysis to
uncover the underlying mechanisms of these phenomena. Our analysis reveals the
existence of conflict-entangled neurons in LLMs that exhibit opposing
sensitivities across multiple risk dimensions. Further trend consistency
analysis at both task and neuron levels confirms that these neurons play a key
role in mediating the emergence of unintended behaviors following defense
deployment. We call for a paradigm shift in LLM risk evaluation, toward
holistic, interaction-aware assessment of defense strategies.