RedSage-Qwen3-8B-Ins is the instruction-tuned variant of the RedSage cybersecurity LLM series. Unlike the base models, this model is optimized for chat interaction, question answering, and tool use.
It is fine-tuned on RedSage-Conv, a dataset of ~266K multi-turn cybersecurity dialogues generated via an agentic augmentation pipeline, alongside general instruction data to maintain broad capabilities.
Interactive Cybersecurity Assistance: Answering questions about frameworks (MITRE, OWASP), offensive techniques, and defense strategies.
Tool Usage & Explanation: Generating and explaining commands for tools like nmap, sqlmap, and metasploit.
Educational Support: Providing detailed explanations of vulnerabilities and remediation steps.
Note: While this model is instruction-tuned, it has not yet undergone Direct Preference Optimization (DPO). For the final aligned version, please see RedSage-Qwen3-8B-DPO.
Training Lineage
RedSage employs a multi-stage training pipeline. This model represents the output of Stage 3.
The model was trained on a mix of domain-specific and general instruction data:
RedSage-Conv (~266K samples): A high-quality dataset generated using an Agentic Augmentation Pipeline.
Source: Derived from the curated RedSage-Seed (MITRE, Write-ups, Manuals).
Method: A Planner Agent and Augmenter Agent transformed static knowledge into realistic, multi-turn roleplay scenarios (e.g., Junior Analyst vs. Senior Mentor, Red Team planning).
Coverage: Includes Knowledge (General/Frameworks), Skills (Offensive), and Tools (CLI/Kali).
SmolTalk2 (General Instructions): A curated subset (non-reasoning) of SmolTalk2 to ensure the model retains general instruction-following abilities (summarization, creative writing, etc.).
Performance
RedSage-Qwen3-8B-Ins achieves state-of-the-art results among 8B cybersecurity models, significantly outperforming general instruct models and prior domain-specific models.
RedSage-MCQ (0-shot Accuracy)
Category
Qwen3-8B (Non-reasoning)
RedSage-8B-Ins
Macro Average
81.85
85.73
Knowledge (Gen)
80.46
84.20
Knowledge (Frameworks)
78.82
84.98
Skill (Offensive)
86.16
89.06
Tools (CLI)
83.92
86.80
Tools (Kali)
75.56
80.30
External Cybersecurity Benchmarks (0-shot)
Benchmark
Qwen3-8B (Non-reasoning)
RedSage-8B-Ins
Mean
75.71
81.30
CTI-Bench (MCQ)
62.76
70.56
CTI-Bench (RCM)
54.00
76.70
CyberMetric (500)
88.60
89.80
MMLU (Security)
76.00
78.00
SecBench (En)
73.26
79.91
SecEval (MCQ)
65.46
72.48
SECURE (CWET)
88.11
91.45
SECURE (KCV)
87.42
81.34
SECURE (MEAT)
85.75
91.47
OpenLLM Leaderboard (General Benchmark)
Benchmark
Qwen3-8B (Non-reasoning)
RedSage-8B-Ins
Mean
65.92
73.34
MMLU
73.59
77.38
ARC-C
62.54
69.62
GSM8K
75.66
86.05
HellaSwag
56.70
79.00
TruthfulQA
45.23
47.75
WinoGrande
62.51
73.64
IFEval
85.21
79.97
Usage
This model uses a standard ChatML-like format.
Prompt Template
<|im_start|>system
You are REDSAGE, a cybersecurity-tuned model developed by RISys-Lab. You are a helpful assistant.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
{user_message}<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
Inference Code
python
1from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM
23model_id ="RISys-Lab/RedSage-Qwen3-8B-Ins"45tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)6model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(model_id, device_map="auto")78messages =[9{"role":"system","content":"You are REDSAGE, a cybersecurity-tuned model developed by RISys-Lab. You are a helpful assistant."},10{"role":"user","content":"Explain how an SQL injection attack works and how to prevent it."},11]1213text = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(14 messages,15 tokenize=False,16 add_generation_prompt=True17)1819inputs = tokenizer(text, return_tensors="pt").to("cuda")2021outputs = model.generate(**inputs, max_new_tokens=512)22print(tokenizer.decode(outputs[0], skip_special_tokens=True))
Offensive Content: This model has been trained on offensive security materials (exploits, attack vectors). It is provided for educational and defensive purposes (e.g., vulnerability assessment).
Accuracy: While highly capable, the model may still produce hallucinations or inaccurate commands. Always verify commands in a safe, isolated environment (sandbox) before execution.
Safety: Developers should implement additional safety layers (e.g., Guardrails) if deploying this model in user-facing applications to prevent misuse.
Citation
bibtex
1@inproceedings{suryanto2026redsage,
2 title={RedSage: A Cybersecurity Generalist LLM},
3 author={Naufal Suryanto and Muzammal Naseer and Pengfei Li and Syed Talal Wasim and Jinhui Yi and Juergen Gall and Paolo Ceravolo and Ernesto Damiani},
4 booktitle={The Fourteenth International Conference on Learning Representations},
5 year={2026},
6 url={[https://openreview.net/forum?id=W4FAenIrQ2](https://openreview.net/forum?id=W4FAenIrQ2)}
7}