mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Implementing a White-Box Undetectable Backdoor for Random Fourier Features

arXiv 2609.16403 ↗First posted 14 Sep 2026cs.CR cs.LGcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

Goldwasser et al. showed that undetectable backdoors can be planted in machine learning models trained with the Random Fourier Features (RFF) algorithm, under a hardness assumption tied to the Continuous Learning With Errors (CLWE) problem. Under standard cryptographic assumptions, even a full white-box audit of a model's weights cannot detect this class of backdoor. The construction is stated in terms of cryptographic reductions and probabilistic lemmas, without a reference implementation, and relies on secondary machinery such as the Sparse Gaussian Pancakes distribution and a homogeneous CLWE conditional density. Its realizability in ordinary numerical code is not obvious from the paper alone. This paper implements the white-box CLWE-RFF backdoor construction end to end using only numpy and scipy, to test whether this threat is realizable with commodity scientific-computing tools or requires specialized cryptographic infrastructure. We give two samplers for the core GPd(bk) distribution. The first is a rejection-sampling proxy. The second is an exact closed-form sampler derived from the homogeneous CLWE density and verified against its own analytic form. Using this implementation, we run statistical indistinguishability tests, covering both weight-space and functional black-box comparisons. We find no evidence of detectable difference between backdoored and clean models across a range of sparsity ratios ρ = dsparse/D. We report which parts of the construction were straightforward to realize, which required derivation not spelled out in the paper. We also highlight which parts we did not attempt to reproduce, including the underlying lattice hardness reduction. We see this work as a contribution to understanding the practical realizability of the Goldwasser white-box CLWE core, not as a new theoretical result.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 12 of its 22 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Sep 2026.

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12 of 22 references.

References · 12

  1. 2019Certified Adversarial Robustness via Randomized Smoothingcited by 1,324
  2. 2017BadNets: Identifying Vulnerabilities in the Machine Learning Model Supply Chaincited by 1,052
  3. 2018Certified Robustness to Adversarial Examples with Differential Privacycited by 462
  4. 2018Spectral Signatures in Backdoor Attackscited by 457
  5. 2016Generalization Properties of Learning with Random Featurescited by 163
  6. 2021SPECTRE: Defending Against Backdoor Attacks Using Robust Statisticscited by 123
  7. 2021Black-box Detection of Backdoor Attacks with Limited Information and Datacited by 71
  8. 2019Stateful Detection of Black-Box Adversarial Attackscited by 55
  9. 2022Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Modelscited by 55
  10. 2020Continuous LWEcited by 37
  11. 2022Continuous LWE is as Hard as LWE & Applications to Learning Gaussian Mixturescited by 26
  12. 2013Computational Lower Bounds for Sparse PCAcited by 11

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