ObfusBFA: A Holistic Approach to Safeguarding DNNs from Different Types of Bit-Flip Attacks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Yan, Xiaobei, Qiu, Han, Zhang, Tianwei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Yan, Xiaobei
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
author_facet Yan, Xiaobei
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
contents Bit-flip attacks (BFAs) represent a serious threat to Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), where flipping a small number of bits in the model parameters or binary code can significantly degrade the model accuracy or mislead the model prediction in a desired way. Existing defenses exclusively focus on protecting models for specific attacks and platforms, while lacking effectiveness for other scenarios. We propose ObfusBFA, an efficient and holistic methodology to mitigate BFAs targeting both the high-level model weights and low-level codebase (executables or shared libraries). The key idea of ObfusBFA is to introduce random dummy operations during the model inference, which effectively transforms the delicate attacks into random bit flips, making it much harder for attackers to pinpoint and exploit vulnerable bits. We design novel algorithms to identify critical bits and insert obfuscation operations. We evaluate ObfusBFA against different types of attacks, including the adaptive scenarios where the attacker increases the flip bit budget to attempt to circumvent our defense. The results show that ObfusBFA can consistently preserve the model accuracy across various datasets and DNN architectures while significantly reducing the attack success rates. Additionally, it introduces minimal latency and storage overhead, making it a practical solution for real-world applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_10744
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ObfusBFA: A Holistic Approach to Safeguarding DNNs from Different Types of Bit-Flip Attacks
Yan, Xiaobei
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
Cryptography and Security
Bit-flip attacks (BFAs) represent a serious threat to Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), where flipping a small number of bits in the model parameters or binary code can significantly degrade the model accuracy or mislead the model prediction in a desired way. Existing defenses exclusively focus on protecting models for specific attacks and platforms, while lacking effectiveness for other scenarios. We propose ObfusBFA, an efficient and holistic methodology to mitigate BFAs targeting both the high-level model weights and low-level codebase (executables or shared libraries). The key idea of ObfusBFA is to introduce random dummy operations during the model inference, which effectively transforms the delicate attacks into random bit flips, making it much harder for attackers to pinpoint and exploit vulnerable bits. We design novel algorithms to identify critical bits and insert obfuscation operations. We evaluate ObfusBFA against different types of attacks, including the adaptive scenarios where the attacker increases the flip bit budget to attempt to circumvent our defense. The results show that ObfusBFA can consistently preserve the model accuracy across various datasets and DNN architectures while significantly reducing the attack success rates. Additionally, it introduces minimal latency and storage overhead, making it a practical solution for real-world applications.
title ObfusBFA: A Holistic Approach to Safeguarding DNNs from Different Types of Bit-Flip Attacks
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10744