Almost all current adversarial attacks of CNN classifiers rely on information
derived from the output layer of the network. This work presents a new
adversarial attack based on the modeling and exploitation of class-wise and
layer-wise deep feature distributions. We achieve state-of-the-art targeted
blackbox transfer-based attack results for undefended ImageNet models. Further,
we place a priority on explainability and interpretability of the attacking
process. Our methodology affords an analysis of how adversarial attacks change
the intermediate feature distributions of CNNs, as well as a measure of
layer-wise and class-wise feature distributional separability/entanglement. We
also conceptualize a transition from task/data-specific to model-specific
features within a CNN architecture that directly impacts the transferability of
adversarial examples.