mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Adversarial Sticker: A Stealthy Attack Method in the Physical World

arXiv 2104.06728 ↗First posted 14 Apr 2021cs.CVcited by 92

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Abstract (arXiv)

To assess the vulnerability of deep learning in the physical world, recent works introduce adversarial patches and apply them on different tasks. In this paper, we propose another kind of adversarial patch: the Meaningful Adversarial Sticker, a physically feasible and stealthy attack method by using real stickers existing in our life. Unlike the previous adversarial patches by designing perturbations, our method manipulates the sticker's pasting position and rotation angle on the objects to perform physical attacks. Because the position and rotation angle are less affected by the printing loss and color distortion, adversarial stickers can keep good attacking performance in the physical world. Besides, to make adversarial stickers more practical in real scenes, we conduct attacks in the black-box setting with the limited information rather than the white-box setting with all the details of threat models. To effectively solve for the sticker's parameters, we design the Region based Heuristic Differential Evolution Algorithm, which utilizes the new-found regional aggregation of effective solutions and the adaptive adjustment strategy of the evaluation criteria. Our method is comprehensively verified in the face recognition and then extended to the image retrieval and traffic sign recognition. Extensive experiments show the proposed method is effective and efficient in complex physical conditions and has a good generalization for different tasks.

Key facts. Cited by 92 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 44 of its 54 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2021.

Builds on

44 of 54 references.

References · 44

  1. 2014Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examplescited by 7,287
  2. 2017Towards Deep Learning Models Resistant to Adversarial Attackscited by 6,326
  3. 2013Intriguing properties of neural networkscited by 5,114
  4. 2015You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detectioncited by 4,829
  5. 2016Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Neural Networkscited by 2,976
  6. 2015FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clusteringcited by 2,833
  7. 2016Adversarial examples in the physical worldcited by 1,762
  8. 2015DeepFool: a simple and accurate method to fool deep neural networkscited by 1,315
  9. 2017Multimodal Machine Learning: A Survey and Taxonomycited by 1,004
  10. 2018CosFace: Large Margin Cosine Loss for Deep Face Recognitioncited by 968
  11. 2017SphereFace: Deep Hypersphere Embedding for Face Recognitioncited by 733
  12. 2019Square Attack: a query-efficient black-box adversarial attack via random searchcited by 682
32 more
  1. 2020Image Segmentation Using Deep Learning: A Surveycited by 659
  2. 2017ZOO: Zeroth Order Optimization based Black-box Attacks to Deep Neural Networks without Training Substitute Modelscited by 656
  3. 2017One pixel attack for fooling deep neural networkscited by 579
  4. 2019Deep Learning for 3D Point Clouds: A Surveycited by 557
  5. 2016Delving into Transferable Adversarial Examples and Black-box Attackscited by 530
  6. 2017Adversarial Patchcited by 514
  7. 2017Decision-Based Adversarial Attacks: Reliable Attacks Against Black-Box Machine Learning Modelscited by 459
  8. 2019Fooling automated surveillance cameras: adversarial patches to attack person detectioncited by 268
  9. 2019Simple Black-box Adversarial Attackscited by 249
  10. 2016UnitBox: An Advanced Object Detection Networkcited by 205
  11. 2019Efficient Decision-based Black-box Adversarial Attacks on Face Recognitioncited by 173
  12. 2018Physical Adversarial Examples for Object Detectorscited by 163
  13. 2019AdvHat: Real-world adversarial attack on ArcFace Face ID systemcited by 161
  14. 2019Making an Invisibility Cloak: Real World Adversarial Attacks on Object Detectorscited by 155
  15. 2018DPatch: An Adversarial Patch Attack on Object Detectorscited by 146
  16. 2018Query-Efficient Hard-label Black-box Attack:An Optimization-based Approachcited by 130
  17. 2020Adversarial Camouflage: Hiding Physical-World Attacks with Natural Stylescited by 126
  18. 2018LaVAN: Localized and Visible Adversarial Noisecited by 112
  19. 2017A General Framework for Adversarial Examples with Objectivescited by 82
  20. 2020The Translucent Patch: A Physical and Universal Attack on Object Detectorscited by 62
  21. 2018DARTS: Deceiving Autonomous Cars with Toxic Signscited by 53
  22. 2020Universal Adversarial Attack on Attention and the Resulting Dataset DAmageNetcited by 45
  23. 2018Understanding and Enhancing the Transferability of Adversarial Examplescited by 41
  24. 2020Adversarial Light Projection Attacks on Face Recognition Systems: A Feasibility Studycited by 40
  25. 2019On adversarial patches: real-world attack on ArcFace-100 face recognition systemcited by 35
  26. 2018Invisible Mask: Practical Attacks on Face Recognition with Infraredcited by 33
  27. 2020Object Hider: Adversarial Patch Attack Against Object Detectorscited by 23
  28. 2021QAIR: Practical Query-efficient Black-Box Attacks for Image Retrievalcited by 22
  29. 2020A Survey On Anti-Spoofing Methods For Face Recognition with RGB Cameras of Generic Consumer Devicescited by 18
  30. 2019Real-world adversarial attack on MTCNN face detection systemcited by 14
  31. 2020A Hamiltonian Monte Carlo Method for Probabilistic Adversarial Attack and Learningcited by 13
  32. 2017Note on Attacking Object Detectors with Adversarial Stickerscited by 5

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 8; 2023: 35; 2024: 19; 2025: 20; 2026: 10.

92 papers.

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  1. 2022Physical Adversarial Attack meets Computer Vision: A Decade Surveycited by 66
  2. 2022Simultaneously Optimizing Perturbations and Positions for Black-box Adversarial Patch Attackscited by 41
  3. 2023Physically Adversarial Infrared Patches with Learnable Shapes and Locationscited by 38
  4. 2023Towards Effective Adversarial Textured 3D Meshes on Physical Face Recognitioncited by 33
  5. 2022ImageNet-Patch: A Dataset for Benchmarking Machine Learning Robustness against Adversarial Patchescited by 27
  6. 2023Unified Adversarial Patch for Cross-modal Attacks in the Physical Worldcited by 27
  7. 2023Towards Transferable Targeted 3D Adversarial Attack in the Physical Worldcited by 25
  8. 2022A Survey on Physical Adversarial Attack in Computer Visioncited by 24
  9. 2023RFLA: A Stealthy Reflected Light Adversarial Attack in the Physical Worldcited by 23
  10. 2022Benchmarking Adversarial Patch Against Aerial Detectioncited by 21
  11. 2023Unified Adversarial Patch for Visible-Infrared Cross-modal Attacks in the Physical Worldcited by 21
  12. 2023Efficient Robustness Assessment via Adversarial Spatial-Temporal Focus on Videoscited by 20
38 more
  1. 2023Physical Adversarial Attacks For Camera-based Smart Systems: Current Trends, Categorization, Applications, Research Challenges, and Future Outlookcited by 20
  2. 2023Physical Adversarial Attacks for Surveillance: A Surveycited by 15
  3. 2023DIFFender: Diffusion-Based Adversarial Defense against Patch Attackscited by 15
  4. 2023Mitigating Accuracy-Robustness Trade-off via Balanced Multi-Teacher Adversarial Distillationcited by 13
  5. 2023Adversarial Attacks on Traffic Sign Recognition: A Surveycited by 13
  6. 2022Visual Adversarial Attacks and Defenses in the Physical World: A Surveycited by 11
  7. 2023Adversarial Infrared Blocks: A Multi-view Black-box Attack to Thermal Infrared Detectors in Physical Worldcited by 11
  8. 2023PatchCURE: Improving Certifiable Robustness, Model Utility, and Computation Efficiency of Adversarial Patch Defensescited by 10
  9. 2023Adversarial Examples in the Physical World: A Surveycited by 10
  10. 2023Adversarial Infrared Curves: An Attack on Infrared Pedestrian Detectors in the Physical Worldcited by 10
  11. 2023State-of-the-art optical-based physical adversarial attacks for deep learning computer vision systemscited by 8
  12. 2023Boosting Adversarial Transferability with Learnable Patch-wise Maskscited by 8
  13. 2023Improving Adversarial Robust Fairness via Anti-Bias Soft Label Distillationcited by 8
  14. 2024Machine Learning Robustness: A Primercited by 8
  15. 2023CBA: Contextual Background Attack against Optical Aerial Detection in the Physical Worldcited by 7
  16. 2023Improving Viewpoint Robustness for Visual Recognition via Adversarial Trainingcited by 7
  17. 2024Sequential Manipulation Against Rank Aggregation: Theory and Algorithmcited by 7
  18. 2022Adversarial Neon Beam: A Light-based Physical Attack to DNNscited by 6
  19. 2025CDUPatch: Color-Driven Universal Adversarial Patch Attack for Dual-Modal Visible-Infrared Detectorscited by 6
  20. 2023Adversarial Attacks and Defenses in Machine Learning-Powered Networks: A Contemporary Surveycited by 5
  21. 2023A Comprehensive Study on the Robustness of Image Classification and Object Detection in Remote Sensing: Surveying and Benchmarkingcited by 5
  22. 2024Real-world Adversarial Defense against Patch Attacks based on Diffusion Modelcited by 5
  23. 2023Revisiting the Trade-off between Accuracy and Robustness via Weight Distribution of Filterscited by 4
  24. 2023Two-stage optimized unified adversarial patch for attacking visible-infrared cross-modal detectors in the physical worldcited by 4
  25. 2023Embodied Laser Attack:Leveraging Scene Priors to Achieve Agent-based Robust Non-contact Attackscited by 4
  26. 2023MVPatch: More Vivid Patch for Adversarial Camouflaged Attacks on Object Detectors in the Physical Worldcited by 4
  27. 2024A Survey on Physical Adversarial Attacks against Face Recognition Systemscited by 4
  28. 2024Breaking the Illusion: Real-world Challenges for Adversarial Patches in Object Detectioncited by 4
  29. 2025Maximal Brain Damage Without Data or Optimization: Disrupting Neural Networks via Sign-Bit Flipscited by 4
  30. 2025Beyond Vulnerabilities: A Survey of Adversarial Attacks as Both Threats and Defenses in Computer Vision Systemscited by 4
  31. 2023Distributional Modeling for Location-Aware Adversarial Patchescited by 3
  32. 2024Data-Driven Lipschitz Continuity: A Cost-Effective Approach to Improve Adversarial Robustnesscited by 3
  33. 2024Mitigating Low-Frequency Bias: Feature Recalibration and Frequency Attention Regularization for Adversarial Robustnesscited by 3
  34. 2024Attack Anything: Blind DNNs via Universal Background Adversarial Attackcited by 3
  35. 2024Fall Leaf Adversarial Attack on Traffic Sign Classificationcited by 3
  36. 2023Contextual adversarial attack against aerial detection in the physical worldcited by 2
  37. 2024Towards Robust Semantic Segmentation against Patch-based Attack via Attention Refinementcited by 2
  38. 2024Model Agnostic Defense against Adversarial Patch Attacks on Object Detection in Unmanned Aerial Vehiclescited by 2

50 most cited of 92 All 92 (JSON)