SecureAFL: Secure Asynchronous Federated Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Gao, Anjun, Wang, Feng, Wan, Zhenglin, Quan, Yueyang, Liu, Zhuqing, Fang, Minghong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Gao, Anjun
Wang, Feng
Wan, Zhenglin
Quan, Yueyang
Liu, Zhuqing
Fang, Minghong
author_facet Gao, Anjun
Wang, Feng
Wan, Zhenglin
Quan, Yueyang
Liu, Zhuqing
Fang, Minghong
contents Federated learning (FL) enables multiple clients to collaboratively train a global machine learning model via a server without sharing their private training data. In traditional FL, the system follows a synchronous approach, where the server waits for model updates from numerous clients before aggregating them to update the global model. However, synchronous FL is hindered by the straggler problem. To address this, the asynchronous FL architecture allows the server to update the global model immediately upon receiving any client's local model update. Despite its advantages, the decentralized nature of asynchronous FL makes it vulnerable to poisoning attacks. Several defenses tailored for asynchronous FL have been proposed, but these mechanisms remain susceptible to advanced attacks or rely on unrealistic server assumptions. In this paper, we introduce SecureAFL, an innovative framework designed to secure asynchronous FL against poisoning attacks. SecureAFL improves the robustness of asynchronous FL by detecting and discarding anomalous updates while estimating the contributions of missing clients. Additionally, it utilizes Byzantine-robust aggregation techniques, such as coordinate-wise median, to integrate the received and estimated updates. Extensive experiments on various real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of SecureAFL.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_03862
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SecureAFL: Secure Asynchronous Federated Learning
Gao, Anjun
Wang, Feng
Wan, Zhenglin
Quan, Yueyang
Liu, Zhuqing
Fang, Minghong
Cryptography and Security
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Machine Learning
Federated learning (FL) enables multiple clients to collaboratively train a global machine learning model via a server without sharing their private training data. In traditional FL, the system follows a synchronous approach, where the server waits for model updates from numerous clients before aggregating them to update the global model. However, synchronous FL is hindered by the straggler problem. To address this, the asynchronous FL architecture allows the server to update the global model immediately upon receiving any client's local model update. Despite its advantages, the decentralized nature of asynchronous FL makes it vulnerable to poisoning attacks. Several defenses tailored for asynchronous FL have been proposed, but these mechanisms remain susceptible to advanced attacks or rely on unrealistic server assumptions. In this paper, we introduce SecureAFL, an innovative framework designed to secure asynchronous FL against poisoning attacks. SecureAFL improves the robustness of asynchronous FL by detecting and discarding anomalous updates while estimating the contributions of missing clients. Additionally, it utilizes Byzantine-robust aggregation techniques, such as coordinate-wise median, to integrate the received and estimated updates. Extensive experiments on various real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of SecureAFL.
title SecureAFL: Secure Asynchronous Federated Learning
topic Cryptography and Security
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.03862