# Wild Networks: Exposure of 5G Network Infrastructures to Adversarial Examples

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.01531 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01531/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 44 of its 118 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jul 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 44)

- [Adversarial examples in the physical world](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.02533/) (2016)
- [Practical Black-Box Attacks against Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.02697/) (2016)
- [Ensemble Adversarial Training: Attacks and Defenses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07204/) (2017)
- [Evasion Attacks against Machine Learning at Test Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06131/) (2017)
- [ZOO: Zeroth Order Optimization based Black-box Attacks to Deep Neural Networks without Training Substitute Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.03999/) (2017)
- [One pixel attack for fooling deep neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.08864/) (2017)
- [Black-box Adversarial Attacks with Limited Queries and Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08598/) (2018)
- [Certified Robustness to Adversarial Examples with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.03471/) (2018)
- [On Evaluating Adversarial Robustness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.06705/) (2019)
- [Wild Patterns: Ten Years After the Rise of Adversarial Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.03141/) (2017)
- [Adversarial Attacks on Deep-Learning Based Radio Signal Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07713/) (2018)
- [Poisoning the Unlabeled Dataset of Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01622/) (2021)
- [Modeling Realistic Adversarial Attacks against Network Intrusion Detection Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09380/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Backdooring and Poisoning Neural Networks with Image-Scaling Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08633/) (2020)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Resource Management in Network Slicing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06591/) (2018)
- [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)
- [Improving Robustness of ML Classifiers against Realizable Evasion Attacks Using Conserved Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08327/) (2017)
- [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)
- [Analyzing Adversarial Attacks Against Deep Learning for Intrusion Detection in IoT Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05137/) (2019)
- [Trojan Attacks on Wireless Signal Classification with Adversarial Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10766/) (2019)
- [Open, Programmable, and Virtualized 5G Networks: State-of-the-Art and the Road Ahead](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.10027/) (2020)
- [Spectrum Data Poisoning with Adversarial Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09247/) (2019)
- [Deep Learning Power Allocation in Massive MIMO](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03640/) (2018)
- [When Attackers Meet AI: Learning-empowered Attacks in Cooperative Spectrum Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01430/) (2019)
- [Hardening Random Forest Cyber Detectors Against Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.03790/) (2019)

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

- ["Real Attackers Don't Compute Gradients": Bridging the Gap Between Adversarial ML Research and Practice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14315/) (2022)
- [Adversarial Attacks and Defenses in Machine Learning-Powered Networks: A Contemporary Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06302/) (2023)
- [Adversarial News and Lost Profits: Manipulating Headlines in LLM-Driven Algorithmic Trading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.13082/) (2026)
- [Magmaw: Modality-Agnostic Adversarial Attacks on Machine Learning-Based Wireless Communication Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00207/) (2023)
- [SAGE-5GC: Security-Aware Guidelines for Evaluating Anomaly Detection in the 5G Core Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.03596/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Fifth Generation (5G) networks must support billions of heterogeneous devices while guaranteeing optimal Quality of Service (QoS). Such requirements are impossible to meet with human effort alone, and Machine Learning (ML) represents a core asset in 5G. ML, however, is known to be vulnerable to adversarial examples; moreover, as our paper will show, the 5G context is exposed to a yet another type of adversarial ML attacks that cannot be formalized with existing threat models. Proactive assessment of such risks is also challenging due to the lack of ML-powered 5G equipment available for adversarial ML research. To tackle these problems, we propose a novel adversarial ML threat model that is particularly suited to 5G scenarios, and is agnostic to the precise function solved by ML. In contrast to existing ML threat models, our attacks do not require any compromise of the target 5G system while still being viable due to the QoS guarantees and the open nature of 5G networks. Furthermore, we propose an original framework for realistic ML security assessments based on public data. We proactively evaluate our threat model on 6 applications of ML envisioned in 5G. Our attacks affect both the training and the inference stages, can degrade the performance of state-of-the-art ML systems, and have a lower entry barrier than previous attacks.