# Explainable Adversarial Learning Framework on Physical Layer Secret Keys Combating Malicious Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06663 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.06663/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Intelligent Reflecting Surface Enhanced Wireless Network via Joint Active and Passive Beamforming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.03961/) (2018)
- [Towards Smart and Reconfigurable Environment: Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided Wireless Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.00152/) (2019)
- [Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided Wireless Communications: A Tutorial](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02759/) (2020)
- [Enabling Large Intelligent Surfaces with Compressive Sensing and Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.10136/) (2019)
- [Rayleigh Fading Modeling and Channel Hardening for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04723/) (2020)
- [Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces: Physics, Propagation, and Pathloss Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.03359/) (2019)
- [Artificial-Noise-Aided Secure MIMO Wireless Communications via Intelligent Reflecting Surface](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.07063/) (2020)
- [Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Wireless Key Generation for Low-Entropy Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.06613/) (2020)
- [Random Shifting Intelligent Reflecting Surface for OTP Encrypted Data Transmission](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.14268/) (2020)
- [Deep Learning-based Physical-Layer Secret Key Generation for FDD Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.08364/) (2021)
- [Secret Key Agreement with Large Antenna Arrays under the Pilot Contamination Attack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1507.00095/) (2015)
- [UAV-Involved Wireless Physical-Layer Secure Communications: Overview and Research Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.09701/) (2019)
- [Secret Key Generation for Intelligent Reflecting Surface Assisted Wireless Communication Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.06304/) (2020)
- [Adversarial Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Against Physical Layer Key Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10955/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) can both help and hinder the physical layer secret key generation (PL-SKG) of communications systems. Whilst a legitimate RIS can yield beneficial impacts, including increased channel randomness to enhance PL-SKG, a malicious RIS can poison legitimate channels and crack almost all existing PL-SKGs. In this work, we propose an adversarial learning framework that addresses Man-in-the-middle RIS (MITM-RIS) eavesdropping which can exist between legitimate parties, namely Alice and Bob. First, the theoretical mutual information gap between legitimate pairs and MITM-RIS is deduced. From this, Alice and Bob leverage adversarial learning to learn a common feature space that assures no mutual information overlap with MITM-RIS. Next, to explain the trained legitimate common feature generator, we aid signal processing interpretation of black-box neural networks using a symbolic explainable AI (xAI) representation. These symbolic terms of dominant neurons aid the engineering of feature designs and the validation of the learned common feature space. Simulation results show that our proposed adversarial learning- and symbolic-based PL-SKGs can achieve high key agreement rates between legitimate users, and is further resistant to an MITM-RIS Eve with the full knowledge of legitimate feature generation (NNs or formulas). This therefore paves the way to secure wireless communications with untrusted reflective devices in future 6G.