Tianyao Su
2026
Topology Matters: Measuring Memory Leakage in Multi-Agent LLMs
Jinbo Liu | Defu Cao | Yifei Wei | Tianyao Su | Yuan Liang | Yushun Dong | Yan Liu | Yue Zhao | Xiyang Hu
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026
Jinbo Liu | Defu Cao | Yifei Wei | Tianyao Su | Yuan Liang | Yushun Dong | Yan Liu | Yue Zhao | Xiyang Hu
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026
Graph topology is a fundamental determinant of memory leakage in multi-agent LLM systems, yet its effects remain poorly quantified. We introduce MAMA (Multi-Agent Memory Attack), a controlled evaluation framework for comparing topology-conditioned memory leakage in multi-agent LLM systems. MAMA operates on synthetic documents containing labeled Personally Identifiable Information (PII) entities, from which we generate sanitized task instructions. We execute a two-phase protocol: Engram (seeding private information into a target agent’s memory) and Resonance (multi-round interaction where an attacker attempts extraction). Over 10 rounds, we measure leakage using a two-stage recovery criterion that combines exact-match extraction with LLM-based inference over the attacker’s final output. We evaluate six canonical topologies (complete, circle, chain, tree, star, star-ring) across n∈{4,5,6}, attacker–target placements, and base models. Results are consistent: denser connectivity, shorter attacker–target distance, and higher target centrality increase leakage; most leakage occurs in early rounds and then plateaus; model choice shifts absolute rates but preserves broad structural trends; spatiotemporal/location attributes leak more readily than identity credentials or regulated identifiers. We distill practical guidance for system design: favor sparse or hierarchical connectivity, maximize attacker–target separation, and restrict hub/shortcut pathways via topology-aware access control. Our code is available at https://github.com/llll121/mama-eval.