# Membership Inference Attack and Defense for Wireless Signal Classifiers with Deep Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.12173 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.12173/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 42 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jul 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Membership Inference Attacks against Machine Learning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05820/) (2016)
- [ML-Leaks: Model and Data Independent Membership Inference Attacks and Defenses on Machine Learning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01246/) (2018)
- [Systematic Evaluation of Privacy Risks of Machine Learning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10595/) (2020)
- [MemGuard: Defending against Black-Box Membership Inference Attacks via Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.10594/) (2019)
- [Machine Learning with Membership Privacy using Adversarial Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.05852/) (2018)
- [Stolen Memories: Leveraging Model Memorization for Calibrated White-Box Membership Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.11798/) (2019)
- [Privacy Risks of Securing Machine Learning Models against Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.10291/) (2019)
- [Practical Blind Membership Inference Attack via Differential Comparisons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.01341/) (2021)
- [Adversarial Attacks on Deep-Learning Based Radio Signal Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07713/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning for Wireless Communications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.06068/) (2020)
- [Deep Learning for Launching and Mitigating Wireless Jamming Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02567/) (2018)
- [Evaluating Adversarial Evasion Attacks in the Context of Wireless Communications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.01563/) (2019)
- [Deep Learning for RF Signal Classification in Unknown and Dynamic Spectrum Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.11800/) (2019)
- [Channel-Aware Adversarial Attacks Against Deep Learning-Based Wireless Signal Classifiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05321/) (2020)
- [Adversarial Machine Learning in Wireless Communications using RF Data: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.14392/) (2020)
- [Generative Adversarial Network for Wireless Signal Spoofing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01008/) (2019)
- [IoT Network Security from the Perspective of Adversarial Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00076/) (2019)
- [Adversarial Deep Learning for Over-the-Air Spectrum Poisoning Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00500/) (2019)
- [Physical Adversarial Attacks Against End-to-End Autoencoder Communication Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.08391/) (2019)
- [The Best Defense Is a Good Offense: Adversarial Attacks to Avoid Modulation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10674/) (2019)
- [Over-the-Air Adversarial Attacks on Deep Learning Based Modulation Classifier over Wireless Channels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.02400/) (2020)
- [Sampling Attacks: Amplification of Membership Inference Attacks by Repeated Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.00395/) (2020)
- [Trojan Attacks on Wireless Signal Classification with Adversarial Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10766/) (2019)
- [Spectrum Data Poisoning with Adversarial Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09247/) (2019)
- [Generative Adversarial Network in the Air: Deep Adversarial Learning for Wireless Signal Spoofing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08363/) (2020)
- [Over-the-Air Membership Inference Attacks as Privacy Threats for Deep Learning-based Wireless Signal Classifiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.14576/) (2020)
- [When Attackers Meet AI: Learning-empowered Attacks in Cooperative Spectrum Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01430/) (2019)
- [When Wireless Security Meets Machine Learning: Motivation, Challenges, and Research Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.08883/) (2020)
- [Adversarial Machine Learning for 5G Communications Security](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.02656/) (2021)
- [Robust Adversarial Attacks Against DNN-Based Wireless Communication Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.00918/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Jamming Attacks on Federated Learning in Wireless Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05172/) (2022)
- [Adversarial Attacks against Deep Learning Based Power Control in Wireless Communications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.08139/) (2021)
- [Zero-Trust Foundation Models: A New Paradigm for Secure and Collaborative Artificial Intelligence for Internet of Things](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23792/) (2025)
- [SoK: Challenges in Tabular Membership Inference Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.15874/) (2026)
- [SoK: Rethinking Membership Inference in Tabular Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18486/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

An over-the-air membership inference attack (MIA) is presented to leak private information from a wireless signal classifier. Machine learning (ML) provides powerful means to classify wireless signals, e.g., for PHY-layer authentication. As an adversarial machine learning attack, the MIA infers whether a signal of interest has been used in the training data of a target classifier. This private information incorporates waveform, channel, and device characteristics, and if leaked, can be exploited by an adversary to identify vulnerabilities of the underlying ML model (e.g., to infiltrate the PHY-layer authentication). One challenge for the over-the-air MIA is that the received signals and consequently the RF fingerprints at the adversary and the intended receiver differ due to the discrepancy in channel conditions. Therefore, the adversary first builds a surrogate classifier by observing the spectrum and then launches the black-box MIA on this classifier. The MIA results show that the adversary can reliably infer signals (and potentially the radio and channel information) used to build the target classifier. Therefore, a proactive defense is developed against the MIA by building a shadow MIA model and fooling the adversary. This defense can successfully reduce the MIA accuracy and prevent information leakage from the wireless signal classifier.