Neural network applications have become popular in both enterprise and
personal settings. Network solutions are tuned meticulously for each task, and
designs that can robustly resolve queries end up in high demand. As the
commercial value of accurate and performant machine learning models increases,
so too does the demand to protect neural architectures as confidential
investments. We explore the vulnerability of neural networks deployed as black
boxes across accelerated hardware through electromagnetic side channels. We
examine the magnetic flux emanating from a graphics processing unit's power
cable, as acquired by a cheap $3 induction sensor, and find that this signal
betrays the detailed topology and hyperparameters of a black-box neural network
model. The attack acquires the magnetic signal for one query with unknown input
values, but known input dimensions. The network reconstruction is possible due
to the modular layer sequence in which deep neural networks are evaluated. We
find that each layer component's evaluation produces an identifiable magnetic
signal signature, from which layer topology, width, function type, and sequence
order can be inferred using a suitably trained classifier and a joint
consistency optimization based on integer programming. We study the extent to
which network specifications can be recovered, and consider metrics for
comparing network similarity. We demonstrate the potential accuracy of this
side channel attack in recovering the details for a broad range of network
architectures, including random designs. We consider applications that may
exploit this novel side channel exposure, such as adversarial transfer attacks.
In response, we discuss countermeasures to protect against our method and other
similar snooping techniques.