# Cross-Modality Attack Boosted by Gradient-Evolutionary Multiform Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17977 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17977/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 24 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Sep 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6572/) (2014)
- [Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.04644/) (2016)
- [Adversarial examples in the physical world](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.02533/) (2016)
- [DeepFool: a simple and accurate method to fool deep neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.04599/) (2015)
- [In Defense of the Triplet Loss for Person Re-Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.07737/) (2017)
- [Universal adversarial perturbations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.08401/) (2016)
- [One pixel attack for fooling deep neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.08864/) (2017)
- [Deep Learning for Person Re-identification: A Survey and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.04193/) (2020)
- [Dynamic Dual-Attentive Aggregation Learning for Visible-Infrared Person Re-Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09314/) (2020)
- [Adversarial Texture for Fooling Person Detectors in the Physical World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.03373/) (2022)
- [Functional Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00001/) (2019)
- [Sparse-RS: a versatile framework for query-efficient sparse black-box adversarial attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.12834/) (2020)
- [Person Re-identification Method Based on Color Attack and Joint Defence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09571/) (2021)
- [Cross-Modality Perturbation Synergy Attack for Person Re-identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10090/) (2024)
- [Learning to Adapt Invariance in Memory for Person Re-identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.00485/) (2019)
- [Transferable, Controllable, and Inconspicuous Adversarial Attacks on Person Re-identification With Deep Mis-Ranking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04199/) (2020)
- [Eliminate Deviation with Deviation for Data Augmentation and a General Multi-modal Data Learning Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.08533/) (2021)
- [Universal Perturbation Attack Against Image Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.00552/) (2018)
- [Multi-Memory Matching for Unsupervised Visible-Infrared Person Re-Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06825/) (2024)
- [Exploring Color Invariance through Image-Level Ensemble Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10512/) (2024)
- [Beyond Augmentation: Empowering Model Robustness under Extreme Capture Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13640/) (2024)
- [Beyond Dropout: Robust Convolutional Neural Networks Based on Local Feature Masking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13646/) (2024)
- [Adversarial Learning for Neural PDE Solvers with Sparse Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02431/) (2024)
- [Attention Disturbance and Dual-Path Constraint Network for Occluded Person Re-identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.10976/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [LLM-Virus: Evolutionary Jailbreak Attack on Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00055/) (2024)
- [StruSR: Structure-Aware Symbolic Regression with Physics-Informed Taylor Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06635/) (2025)
- [SSCM: A Spatial-Semantic Consistent Model for Multi-Contrast MRI Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18593/) (2025)
- [Geometrically Regularized Transfer Learning with On-Manifold and Off-Manifold Perturbation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15191/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Large-scale UAV Route Planing with Global and Local Features via Reinforcement Graph Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15537/) (2024)
- [On the Mechanisms of Adversarial Data Augmentation for Robust and Adaptive Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12681/) (2025)
- [GAMA: Geometry-Aware Manifold Alignment via Structured Adversarial Perturbations for Robust Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15194/) (2025)
- [Dynamic Modality Scheduling for Multimodal Large Models via Confidence, Uncertainty, and Semantic Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12724/) (2025)
- [FADE: Adversarial Concept Erasure in Flow Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.12283/) (2025)
- [Robust Concept Erasure in Diffusion Models: A Theoretical Perspective on Security and Robustness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12024/) (2025)
- [DeRainMamba: A Frequency-Aware State Space Model with Detail Enhancement for Image Deraining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06746/) (2025)
- [Robust Biomolecular Complex Design Across Protein Conformational Landscapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33726/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In recent years, despite significant advancements in adversarial attack research, the security challenges in cross-modal scenarios, such as the transferability of adversarial attacks between infrared, thermal, and RGB images, have been overlooked. These heterogeneous image modalities collected by different hardware devices are widely prevalent in practical applications, and the substantial differences between modalities pose significant challenges to attack transferability. In this work, we explore a novel cross-modal adversarial attack strategy, termed multiform attack. We propose a dual-layer optimization framework based on gradient-evolution, facilitating efficient perturbation transfer between modalities. In the first layer of optimization, the framework utilizes image gradients to learn universal perturbations within each modality and employs evolutionary algorithms to search for shared perturbations with transferability across different modalities through secondary optimization. Through extensive testing on multiple heterogeneous datasets, we demonstrate the superiority and robustness of Multiform Attack compared to existing techniques. This work not only enhances the transferability of cross-modal adversarial attacks but also provides a new perspective for understanding security vulnerabilities in cross-modal systems.