Protocol-agnostic and Data-free Backdoor Attacks on Pre-trained Models in RF Fingerprinting

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhao, Tianya, Wang, Ningning, Zhang, Junqing, Wang, Xuyu
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhao, Tianya
Wang, Ningning
Zhang, Junqing
Wang, Xuyu
author_facet Zhao, Tianya
Wang, Ningning
Zhang, Junqing
Wang, Xuyu
contents While supervised deep neural networks (DNNs) have proven effective for device authentication via radio frequency (RF) fingerprinting, they are hindered by domain shift issues and the scarcity of labeled data. The success of large language models has led to increased interest in unsupervised pre-trained models (PTMs), which offer better generalization and do not require labeled datasets, potentially addressing the issues mentioned above. However, the inherent vulnerabilities of PTMs in RF fingerprinting remain insufficiently explored. In this paper, we thoroughly investigate data-free backdoor attacks on such PTMs in RF fingerprinting, focusing on a practical scenario where attackers lack access to downstream data, label information, and training processes. To realize the backdoor attack, we carefully design a set of triggers and predefined output representations (PORs) for the PTMs. By mapping triggers and PORs through backdoor training, we can implant backdoor behaviors into the PTMs, thereby introducing vulnerabilities across different downstream RF fingerprinting tasks without requiring prior knowledge. Extensive experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of our proposed attack to various input domains, protocols, and PTMs. Furthermore, we explore potential detection and defense methods, demonstrating the difficulty of fully safeguarding against our proposed backdoor attack.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_00881
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Protocol-agnostic and Data-free Backdoor Attacks on Pre-trained Models in RF Fingerprinting
Zhao, Tianya
Wang, Ningning
Zhang, Junqing
Wang, Xuyu
Cryptography and Security
Machine Learning
Networking and Internet Architecture
C.2.m; I.2.6
While supervised deep neural networks (DNNs) have proven effective for device authentication via radio frequency (RF) fingerprinting, they are hindered by domain shift issues and the scarcity of labeled data. The success of large language models has led to increased interest in unsupervised pre-trained models (PTMs), which offer better generalization and do not require labeled datasets, potentially addressing the issues mentioned above. However, the inherent vulnerabilities of PTMs in RF fingerprinting remain insufficiently explored. In this paper, we thoroughly investigate data-free backdoor attacks on such PTMs in RF fingerprinting, focusing on a practical scenario where attackers lack access to downstream data, label information, and training processes. To realize the backdoor attack, we carefully design a set of triggers and predefined output representations (PORs) for the PTMs. By mapping triggers and PORs through backdoor training, we can implant backdoor behaviors into the PTMs, thereby introducing vulnerabilities across different downstream RF fingerprinting tasks without requiring prior knowledge. Extensive experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of our proposed attack to various input domains, protocols, and PTMs. Furthermore, we explore potential detection and defense methods, demonstrating the difficulty of fully safeguarding against our proposed backdoor attack.
title Protocol-agnostic and Data-free Backdoor Attacks on Pre-trained Models in RF Fingerprinting
topic Cryptography and Security
Machine Learning
Networking and Internet Architecture
C.2.m; I.2.6
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.00881