arXiv AI By Jian Wang, Hong Shen, Chan-Tong Lam

Unveiling Hidden Threats: Using Fractal Triggers to Boost Stealthiness of Distributed Backdoor Attacks in Federated Learning

Read the original on arXiv AI →

The paper introduces Fractal-Triggered Distributed Backdoor Attack (FTDBA), a new method that uses fractal self‑similarity to strengthen sub‑triggers in federated learning backdoor attacks. By employing a dynamic angular perturbation mechanism, FTDBA reduces the amount of poisoned data needed while maintaining a 92.3% attack success rate. Experiments show a 22.8% lower detection rate and a 41.2% reduction in KL divergence compared to traditional distributed backdoor attacks.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at arXiv AI.

arXiv AI
Sep 24

Backdoors Leave Structural Traces: FedMAST for Backdoor Detection and Containment in Federated Learning

The paper introduces FedMAST, a Federated Multi‑Axis Structural Tracing defense designed to detect and contain backdoor attacks in federated learning. FedMAST evaluates client updates through complementary structural, spectral, and historical evidence, applying tiered filtering and round‑level containment. In experiments across six backdoor attacks, FedMAST consistently achieves lower attack success rates while preserving high main‑task accuracy.

By Srinivasan Subramanian, Kazi Aminul Islam, Md. Abdullah Al Hafiz Khan
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 23

FedNIA: Noise-Induced Activation Analysis for Mitigating Data Poisoning in Federated Learning

FedNIA is a defense framework for federated learning that identifies and excludes malicious clients without needing a central test dataset. It works by injecting random noise inputs and analyzing layerwise activation patterns with an autoencoder to detect abnormal behaviors caused by data poisoning. The method can counter various attack types—including sample poisoning, label flipping, and backdoors—even when multiple attackers collaborate, and shows strong performance on non‑iid federated datasets.

By Ehsan Hallaji, Roozbeh Razavi-Far, Mehrdad Saif