Graph Representation Learning Augmented Model Manipulation on Federated Fine-Tuning of LLMs

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Cai, Hanlin, Li, Kai, Wang, Houtianfu, Dong, Haofan, Li, Yichen, Dressler, Falko, Akan, Ozgur B.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Cai, Hanlin
Li, Kai
Wang, Houtianfu
Dong, Haofan
Li, Yichen
Dressler, Falko
Akan, Ozgur B.
author_facet Cai, Hanlin
Li, Kai
Wang, Houtianfu
Dong, Haofan
Li, Yichen
Dressler, Falko
Akan, Ozgur B.
contents Federated fine-tuning (FFT) has emerged as a privacy-preserving paradigm for collaboratively adapting large language models (LLMs). Built upon federated learning, FFT enables distributed agents to jointly refine a shared pretrained LLM by aggregating local LLM updates without sharing local raw data. However, FFT-based LLMs remain vulnerable to model manipulation threats, in which adversarial participants upload manipulated LLM updates that corrupt the aggregation process and degrade the performance of the global LLM. In this paper, we propose an Augmented Model maniPulation (AugMP) strategy against FFT-based LLMs. Specifically, we design a novel graph representation learning framework that captures feature correlations among benign LLM updates to guide the generation of malicious updates. To enhance manipulation effectiveness and stealthiness, we develop an iterative manipulation algorithm based on an augmented Lagrangian dual formulation. Through this formulation, malicious updates are optimized to embed adversarial objectives while preserving benign-like parameter characteristics. Experimental results across multiple LLM backbones demonstrate that the AugMP strategy achieves the strongest manipulation performance among all competing baselines, reducing the global LLM accuracy by up to 26% and degrading the average accuracy of local LLM agents by up to 22%. Meanwhile, AugMP maintains high statistical and geometric consistency with benign updates, enabling it to evade conventional distance- and similarity-based defense methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_07961
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Graph Representation Learning Augmented Model Manipulation on Federated Fine-Tuning of LLMs
Cai, Hanlin
Li, Kai
Wang, Houtianfu
Dong, Haofan
Li, Yichen
Dressler, Falko
Akan, Ozgur B.
Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
Networking and Internet Architecture
Federated fine-tuning (FFT) has emerged as a privacy-preserving paradigm for collaboratively adapting large language models (LLMs). Built upon federated learning, FFT enables distributed agents to jointly refine a shared pretrained LLM by aggregating local LLM updates without sharing local raw data. However, FFT-based LLMs remain vulnerable to model manipulation threats, in which adversarial participants upload manipulated LLM updates that corrupt the aggregation process and degrade the performance of the global LLM. In this paper, we propose an Augmented Model maniPulation (AugMP) strategy against FFT-based LLMs. Specifically, we design a novel graph representation learning framework that captures feature correlations among benign LLM updates to guide the generation of malicious updates. To enhance manipulation effectiveness and stealthiness, we develop an iterative manipulation algorithm based on an augmented Lagrangian dual formulation. Through this formulation, malicious updates are optimized to embed adversarial objectives while preserving benign-like parameter characteristics. Experimental results across multiple LLM backbones demonstrate that the AugMP strategy achieves the strongest manipulation performance among all competing baselines, reducing the global LLM accuracy by up to 26% and degrading the average accuracy of local LLM agents by up to 22%. Meanwhile, AugMP maintains high statistical and geometric consistency with benign updates, enabling it to evade conventional distance- and similarity-based defense methods.
title Graph Representation Learning Augmented Model Manipulation on Federated Fine-Tuning of LLMs
topic Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.07961