SketchGuard is a Byzantine‑robust decentralized federated learning method that separates neighbor screening from model aggregation by using a Count Sketch representation. The approach mitigates a vulnerability where an adaptive adversary can hide large perturbations in the sketch’s null space, by adopting a commit‑then‑sketch protocol that ensures the sketch seed is chosen only after model commitment. The authors prove convergence in both convex and non‑convex settings, demonstrate that SketchGuard achieves state‑of‑the‑art robustness against six attacks—including the adaptive null‑space attack—across various network topologies and data heterogeneity, while reducing per‑neighbor communication to a model‑dimension‑independent size.
arXiv:2608.21137v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Decentralized Federated Learning (DFL) promises trust-free collaborative learning by replacing the centralized parameter server with peer-to-peer model...
arXiv:2608. 06637v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Robust aggregation methods are widely used in federated learning to mitigate the impact of adversarial client behavior.
The paper investigates how the strategic placement of Byzantine nodes in decentralized federated learning (DFL) affects the propagation of malicious influence across the communication graph. It introduces Byzantine Placement Influence (BPI), a measure that captures cumulative exposure of honest nodes to Byzantine sources over time, and develops algorithms to optimize BPI across various network structures and attack types. Experiments demonstrate that BPI-guided placements consistently yield highly damaging configurations, highlighting the importance of considering node placement in DFL threat models.
The paper investigates how adversarial examples transfer between client models in federated learning and explores the relationship between these examples and client data distributions. It proposes a defense strategy based on adversarial training that leverages the transferability of model robustness. Experiments on real-life datasets demonstrate that the new attack and defense methods outperform existing state‑of‑the‑art approaches.
FedLNS is a server‑side framework that screens federated learning updates by representing each client’s contribution through changes in trainable normalization‑layer parameters, creating lightweight signatures that can be compared against a history‑aware cross‑client reference. The method requires no extra client‑to‑server communication, raw data, or labeled attack examples, and after screening, the remaining full‑model updates are aggregated with standard federated learning rules. Experiments on GPT‑style, BERT‑style, and LLaMA‑style models with 200 clients demonstrate that FedLNS achieves lower test perplexity than six baselines even when 40% of the population performs target manipulation under both IID and non‑IID data partitions.
arXiv:2602. 18396v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We propose PRISM-FCP (Partial shaRing and robust calIbration with Statistical Margins for Federated Conformal Prediction), a communication-efficient Byzantine-robust federated conformal prediction framework that uses partial model sharing to mitigate stochastic model-poisoning attacks during training and histogram-based filtering to mitigate adversarial calibration submissions.
arXiv:2607. 02187v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Distributed machine learning enables collaborative model training without centralizing data, but it also exposes learning processes to privacy leakage and malicious manipulation.
arXiv:2606. 19129v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Dealing simultaneously with confidentiality and Byzantine behaviors in decentralized learning is a challenging problem.
arXiv:2605. 07961v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Federated fine-tuning (FFT) has emerged as a privacy-preserving paradigm for collaboratively adapting large language models (LLMs).
The development of federated learning (FL) techniques has helped improve the privacy preservation of users' data and extended the applications of machine learning models. However, the involvement of a...
arXiv:2607. 08651v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Decentralized federated learning (DFL) removes the central server by letting nodes exchange model updates through peer-to-peer gossip, but existing gossip-based methods often lack provenance finality and resilience to Byzantine or lazy participants.
arXiv:2608. 11495v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) serve as the backbone for high-stakes applications in Machine-Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS).