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Autores principales: Vuillod, Bastien, Moellic, Pierre-Alain, Dutertre, Jean-Max
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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Acceso en línea:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14406
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author Vuillod, Bastien
Moellic, Pierre-Alain
Dutertre, Jean-Max
author_facet Vuillod, Bastien
Moellic, Pierre-Alain
Dutertre, Jean-Max
contents Large models adaptation through Federated Learning (FL) addresses a wide range of use cases and is enabled by Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning techniques such as Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA). However, this distributed learning paradigm faces several security threats, particularly to its integrity, such as backdoor attacks that aim to inject malicious behavior during the local training steps of certain clients. We present the first analysis of the influence of LoRA on state-of-the-art backdoor attacks targeting model adaptation in FL. Specifically, we focus on backdoor lifespan, a critical characteristic in FL, that can vary depending on the attack scenario and the attacker's ability to effectively inject the backdoor. A key finding in our experiments is that for an optimally injected backdoor, the backdoor persistence after the attack is longer when the LoRA's rank is lower. Importantly, our work highlights evaluation issues of backdoor attacks against FL and contributes to the development of more robust and fair evaluations of backdoor attacks, enhancing the reliability of risk assessments for critical FL systems. Our code is publicly available.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_14406
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Watch Out for the Lifespan: Evaluating Backdoor Attacks Against Federated Model Adaptation
Vuillod, Bastien
Moellic, Pierre-Alain
Dutertre, Jean-Max
Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
Large models adaptation through Federated Learning (FL) addresses a wide range of use cases and is enabled by Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning techniques such as Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA). However, this distributed learning paradigm faces several security threats, particularly to its integrity, such as backdoor attacks that aim to inject malicious behavior during the local training steps of certain clients. We present the first analysis of the influence of LoRA on state-of-the-art backdoor attacks targeting model adaptation in FL. Specifically, we focus on backdoor lifespan, a critical characteristic in FL, that can vary depending on the attack scenario and the attacker's ability to effectively inject the backdoor. A key finding in our experiments is that for an optimally injected backdoor, the backdoor persistence after the attack is longer when the LoRA's rank is lower. Importantly, our work highlights evaluation issues of backdoor attacks against FL and contributes to the development of more robust and fair evaluations of backdoor attacks, enhancing the reliability of risk assessments for critical FL systems. Our code is publicly available.
title Watch Out for the Lifespan: Evaluating Backdoor Attacks Against Federated Model Adaptation
topic Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14406