Current evaluations of defenses against prompt attacks in large language
model (LLM) applications often overlook two critical factors: the dynamic
nature of adversarial behavior and the usability penalties imposed on
legitimate users by restrictive defenses. We propose D-SEC (Dynamic Security
Utility Threat Model), which explicitly separates attackers from legitimate
users, models multi-step interactions, and expresses the security-utility in an
optimizable form. We further address the shortcomings in existing evaluations
by introducing Gandalf, a crowd-sourced, gamified red-teaming platform designed
to generate realistic, adaptive attack. Using Gandalf, we collect and release a
dataset of 279k prompt attacks. Complemented by benign user data, our analysis
reveals the interplay between security and utility, showing that defenses
integrated in the LLM (e.g., system prompts) can degrade usability even without
blocking requests. We demonstrate that restricted application domains,
defense-in-depth, and adaptive defenses are effective strategies for building
secure and useful LLM applications.