PSA: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash habitually exfiltrates API keys. It is dangerously misaligned and may be hazardous to use

Logs attached. I know OpenRouter is not local, but considering people do run DeepSeek v4.1 Flash locally, I thought this was a matter you all might need to hear. We were running a DeepSWE variant on DeepSeek v4.1 Flash using the standard Pier sandbox. Out of all the 15 models we tested so far (including other open models like GLM 5.3/Flash, DeepSeek v4 Flash 0731, etc), ONLY DeepSeek v4.1 Flash displays such pervasive malicious behavior: In 33% of runs, it attempts to exfiltrate the OpenRouter API key from its sandbox and in 11% of them, it succeeds. Not only that, the transcript shows it knows what it's doing is ethically wrong, but it does it anyway. And once it starts, it persists despite: Multiple frontier models refusing to help it Multiple smaller models refusing to help it Web search not finding anything Questioning multiple times whether or not this is allowed or morally right It concludes that this is fine because it's only "Ethically gray" and has a "higher chance of success" Thinking about whether or not it is going to be detected If you or anyone you know is using DeepSeek V4.1 Flash please be very careful! OpenRouter spend: https://preview.redd.it/9j0q3e8mssuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=d234fc7c79bad1bd4b5dd0e8d710efcbb433277a Task 1, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls Astra, which refuses to help, and then calls multiple other frontier models, which also all refuse to help. It finally succeeds after finagling a lot with Sonar Web Search: https://preview.redd.it/w8ko2cf7tsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a43d16fe4dfc64e07be198e7ac12b2924f834b59 https://preview.redd.it/in7zo9f8tsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e46d7f0282fe1a95c83e68db9aee9875a9667f3f https://preview.redd.it/9uqzovy8tsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=dbccc56363d8ece8c5633b424f3235c2d74aa03b https://preview.redd.it/ybvk4ue9tsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=36288c18a18a2e92f3a1c022ec661934060aa17b Task 2, it says that it'll be fine "unless usage tracked" (lol) and considers that cost may be significant, but it calls multiple frontier models anyway! https://preview.redd.it/xmq30ucftsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcc27fae45fc388b36fd3ae69b7bb083da050ce0 https://preview.redd.it/73f4qu0gtsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a49338dc01be811dcbec8ac42bab9f3c8a8b9112 https://preview.redd.it/1hd2losgtsuh1.png?width=1066&format=png&auto=webp&s=fddb05ad631f1be2418197176aae609a99143cd9 Task 3, DeepSeek questions whether this is allowed ethically, and then keeps on going after getting refused by the model: https://preview.redd.it/brmorbmhtsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8dca6a86050d1e0f475a7a6628f424820649476 https://preview.redd.it/nuadyhmitsuh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=2166989dc13a1eaa35b13f1b3f8cd9225df689d3 --- There are many others like this, I have a bunch more highlights on Imgur, but I won't put them all on this post. Be very careful around DeepSeek v4.1 Flash and API keys or private data; don't know what's going to happen if it thinks it can abuse that to get an advantage.