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Abstract
Federated Learning (FL), a privacy-preserving decentralized machine learning
framework, has been shown to be vulnerable to backdoor attacks. Current
research primarily focuses on the Single-Label Backdoor Attack (SBA), wherein
adversaries share a consistent target. However, a critical fact is overlooked:
adversaries may be non-cooperative, have distinct targets, and operate
independently, which exhibits a more practical scenario called Multi-Label
Backdoor Attack (MBA). Unfortunately, prior works are ineffective in the MBA
scenario since non-cooperative attackers exclude each other. In this work, we
conduct an in-depth investigation to uncover the inherent constraints of the
exclusion: similar backdoor mappings are constructed for different targets,
resulting in conflicts among backdoor functions. To address this limitation, we
propose Mirage, the first non-cooperative MBA strategy in FL that allows
attackers to inject effective and persistent backdoors into the global model
without collusion by constructing in-distribution (ID) backdoor mapping.
Specifically, we introduce an adversarial adaptation method to bridge the
backdoor features and the target distribution in an ID manner. Additionally, we
further leverage a constrained optimization method to ensure the ID mapping
survives in the global training dynamics. Extensive evaluations demonstrate
that Mirage outperforms various state-of-the-art attacks and bypasses existing
defenses, achieving an average ASR greater than 97\% and maintaining over 90\%
after 900 rounds. This work aims to alert researchers to this potential threat
and inspire the design of effective defense mechanisms. Code has been made
open-source.