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762 papersLast indexed Aug 31, 2026
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Jul 26, 2024·ARCA (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia)
16 cites
Vulnerability Detection in Solidity Smart Contracts via Machine Learning: A Qualitative Analysis

Dalila Ressi, Alvise Spanò, Lorenzo Benetollo, Michele Bugliesi · 6 authors

Smart contracts are central to a myriad of critical blockchain applications, from financial transactions to supply chain management. However, their adoption is hindered by security vulnerabilities that can result in significant financial losses. Most vulnerability detection tools and methods available nowadays leverage either static analysis methods or machine learning. Unfortunately, as valuable as they are, both approaches suffer from limitations that make them only partially effective. In this survey, we analyze the state of the art in machine-learning vulnerability detection for Ethereum smart contracts, by categorizing existing tools and methodologies, evaluating them, and highlighting their limitations. Our critical assessment unveils issues such as restricted vulnerability coverage and dataset construction flaws, providing us with new metrics to overcome the difficulties that restrain a sound comparison of existing solutions. Driven by our findings, we discuss best practices to enhance the accuracy, scope, and efficiency of vulnerability detection in smart contracts. Our guidelines address the known flaws while at the same time opening new avenues for research and development. By shedding light on current challenges and offering novel directions for improvement, we contribute to the advancement of secure smart contract development and blockchain technology as a whole.

Open access
4 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Big Data and Digital Economy
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Jul 12, 2024·IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security
5 cites
PriRoAgg: Achieving Robust Model Aggregation with Minimum Privacy Leakage for Federated Learning

Sizai Hou, Songze Li, Tayyebeh Jahani-Nezhad, Giuseppe Caire

Federated learning (FL) has recently gained significant momentum due to its potential to leverage large-scale distributed user data while preserving user privacy. However, the typical paradigm of FL faces challenges of both privacy and robustness: the transmitted model updates can potentially leak sensitive user information, and the lack of central control of the local training process leaves the global model susceptible to malicious manipulations on model updates. Current solutions attempting to address both problems under the one-server FL setting fall short in the following aspects: 1) designed for simple validity checks that are insufficient against advanced attacks (e.g., checking norm of individual update); and 2) partial privacy leakage for more complicated robust aggregation algorithms (e.g., distances between model updates are leaked for multi-Krum). In this work, we formalize a novel security notion of aggregated privacy that characterizes the minimum amount of user information, in the form of some aggregated statistics of users' updates, that is necessary to be revealed to accomplish more advanced robust aggregation. We develop a general framework PriRoAgg, utilizing Lagrange coded computing and distributed zero-knowledge proof, to execute a wide range of robust aggregation algorithms while satisfying aggregated privacy. As concrete instantiations of PriRoAgg, we construct two secure and robust protocols based on state-of-the-art robust algorithms, for which we provide full theoretical analyses on security and complexity. Extensive experiments are conducted for these protocols, demonstrating their robustness against various model integrity attacks, and their efficiency advantages over baselines.

Open access
3 source records
cs.CR
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Cryptography and Data Security
Original source
Jul 8, 2024·Proceedings of the 2024 on ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security
9 cites
FORAY: Towards Effective Attack Synthesis against Deep Logical Vulnerabilities in DeFi Protocols

Hongbo Wen, Hanzhi Liu, Jiaxin Song, Yanju Chen · 6 authors

Blockchain adoption has surged with the rise of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications. However, the significant value of digital assets managed by DeFi protocols makes them prime targets for attacks. Current smart contract vulnerability detection tools struggle with DeFi protocols due to deep logical bugs arising from complex financial interactions between multiple smart contracts. These tools primarily analyze individual contracts and resort to brute-force methods for DeFi protocols crossing numerous smart contracts, leading to inefficiency. We introduce Foray, a highly effective attack synthesis framework against deep logical bugs in DeFi protocols. Foray proposes a novel attack sketch generation and completion framework. Specifically, instead of treating DeFis as regular programs, we design a domain-specific language (DSL) to lift the low-level smart contracts into their high-level financial operations. Based on our DSL, we first compile a given DeFi protocol into a token flow graph, our graphical representation of DeFi protocols. Then, we design an efficient sketch generation method to synthesize attack sketches for a certain attack goal (e.g., price manipulation, arbitrage, etc.). This algorithm strategically identifies candidate sketches by finding reachable paths in TFG, which is much more efficient than random enumeration. For each candidate sketch written in our DSL, Foray designs a domain-specific symbolic compilation to compile it into SMT constraints. Our compilation simplifies the constraints by removing redundant smart contract semantics. It maintains the usability of symbolic compilation, yet scales to problems orders of magnitude larger. Finally, the candidates are completed via existing solvers and are transformed into concrete attacks via direct syntax transformation.

Open access
3 source records
Cryptographic Implementations and Security
Security and Verification in Computing
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Jun 24, 2024·2024 15th International Conference on Computing Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT)
1 cites
EdgeShield: Hybrid Real-Time Attack Detection in IOTA Tangle via Edge Devices

V Arunodhai, Leena P Susan, Jinesh M. Kannimoola

The Internet of Things (IoT) revolutionizes technology interaction by enabling seamless connectivity and automation, but it introduces significant security challenges. A distributed ledger technology (DLT) called IOTA Tangle, a utilizing a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), enables secure and feeless transactions among IoT devices. Despite its advantages, the IOTA Tangle faces threats such as replay attacks and double spending, which highlight vulnerabilities in distributed ledger technologies. To address these security concerns, we initially developed EdgeGuard, a rule-based system for spam detection within the IOTA ecosystem. However, its reliance on predetermined rulesets limited its adaptability. We have now enhanced our approach with EdgeShield, incorporating a neural network for superior threat detection.EdgeShield enhances adaptability over EdgeGuard in threat detection for the IOTA Tangle by integrating machine learning. EdgeShield analyzes network packets to identify threats, leveraging machine learning to adapt to evolving risks. Trained using the MQTTSet dataset, it detects network-based threats such as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and packet flooding. Tested with simulated IoT data, EdgeShield demonstrates effectiveness across various domains, particularly in healthcare IoT. Its decentralized processing on edge devices like the Raspberry Pi 4 enables immediate network traffic analysis, reducing reliance on centralized servers and improving system resilience. Additionally, real-time alerts empower administrators to proactively secure IoT deployments and maintain transaction integrity within the IOTA Tangle. This paper traces our research evolution from EdgeGuard to EdgeShield, highlighting advancements and demonstrating the enhanced security of IoT transactions on the IOTA Tangle.

Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Anomaly Detection Techniques and Applications
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Jun 19, 2024·Data
6 cites
Hardware Trojan Dataset of RISC-V and Web3 Generated with ChatGPT-4

Victor Takashi Hayashi, Wilson Vicente Ruggiero

Although hardware trojans impose a relevant threat to the hardware security of RISC-V and Web3 applications, existing datasets have a limited set of examples, as the most famous hardware trojan dataset TrustHub has 106 different trojans. RISC-V specifically has study cases of three and four different hardware trojans, and no research was found regarding Web3 hardware trojans in modules such as a hardware wallet. This research presents a dataset of 290 Verilog examples generated with ChatGPT-4 Large Language Model (LLM) based on 29 golden models and the TrustHub taxonomy. It is expected that this dataset supports future research endeavors regarding defense mechanisms against hardware trojans in RISC-V, hardware wallet, and hardware Proof of Work (PoW) miner.

Open access
2 source records
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Jun 12, 2024·WSEAS Transactions on Computers archive
6 cites
Federated Learning: Attacks and Defenses, Rewards, Energy Efficiency: Past, Present and Future

Dimitris Karydas, Helen C. Leligou

Federated Learning (FL) was first introduced as an idea by Google in 2016, in which multiple devices jointly train a machine learning model without sharing their data under the supervision of a central server. This offers big opportunities in critical areas like healthcare, industry, and finance, where sharing information with other organizations’ devices is completely prohibited. The combination of Federated Learning with Blockchain technology has led to the so-called Blockchain Federated learning (B.F.L.) which operates in a distributed manner and offers enhanced trust, improved security and privacy, improved traceability and immutability and at the same time enables dataset monetization through tokenization. Unfortunately, vulnerabilities of the blockchain-based solutions have been identified while the implementation of blockchain introduces significant energy consumption issues. There are many solutions that also offer personalized ideas and uses. In the field of security, solutions such as security against model-poisoning backdoor assaults with poles and modified algorithms are proposed. Defense systems that identify hostile devices, Against Phishing and other social engineering attack mechanisms that could threaten current security systems after careful comparison of mutual systems. In a federated learning system built on blockchain, the design of reward mechanisms plays a crucial role in incentivizing active participation. We can use tokens for rewards or other cryptocurrency methods for rewards to a federated learning system. Smart Contracts combined with proof of stake with performance-based rewards or (and) value of data contribution. Some of them use games or game theory-inspired mechanisms with unlimited uses even in other applications like games. All of the above is useless if the energy consumption exceeds the cost of implementing a system. Thus, all of the above is combined with algorithms that make simple or more complex hardware and software adjustments. Heterogeneous data fusion methods, energy consumption models, bandwidth, and controls transmission power try to solve the optimization problems to reduce energy consumption, including communication and compute energy. New technologies such as quantum computing with its advantages such as speed and the ability to solve problems that classical computers cannot solve, their multidimensional nature, analyze large data sets more efficiently than classical artificial intelligence counterparts and the later maturity of a technology that is now expensive will provide solutions in areas such as cryptography, security and why not in energy autonomy. The human brain and an emerging technology can provide solutions to all of the above solutions due to the brain's decentralized nature, built-in reward mechanism, negligible energy use, and really high processing power In this paper we attempt to survey the currently identified threats, attacks and defenses, the rewards and the energy efficiency issues of BFL in order to guide the researchers and the designers of FL based solution to adopt the most appropriate of each application approach.

Open access
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Network Security and Intrusion Detection
Original source
Jun 9, 2024·Security and Privacy
2 cites
Detection of malicious smart contracts by fine‐tuning GPT‐3

MSVPJ Sathvik, Hirak Mazumdar

Abstract This paper introduces a comprehensive framework for the detection and identification of malicious smart contracts, emphasizing their vulnerabilities. The framework leverages the capabilities of GPT‐3, which have been adapted and fine‐tuned for binary and multi‐class classification tasks. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the use of GPT‐3 specifically for detecting and identifying malicious smart contracts. The framework addresses previously unexplored research questions and provides insightful answers through rigorous experimentation. The contributions of this work include proposing a novel approach, pioneering the adaptation of GPT‐3 for this purpose, and offering valuable insights into the detection of malicious smart contracts and vulnerabilities. Notably, our research reveals that GPT‐3 excels not only in understanding natural language but also in decoding the secrets embedded in numerical codes like opcodes. This finding extends the applicability of GPT‐3 beyond language‐based tasks and highlights its potential in enhancing smart contract security.

Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Cryptography and Data Security
Original source
Jun 4, 2024·2024 IEEE 25th International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM)
1 cites
Preserving Data Integrity and Detecting Toxic Recordings in Machine Learning using Blockchain

Bechir Alaya, Tarek Moulahi, Salim El Khediri, Suliman Aladhadh

Machine Learning (ML) is receiving unprecedented hype and attention. However, the ML runtime environment is still at risk from threats, such as manipulation of model parameters or contradictory poisoning of training datasets. A blockchain is a technology that combines a set of existing techniques, protocols, and tools to form a distributed and secure ledger of all transactions. This article examines and proposes a way of integrating ML suitable for Blockchain to protect the training dataset and model parameters. Another major contribution of this work is the deployment and securing of the decision process of ML, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) models. This smart contract-based deployment has equipped the Blockchain-based system to detect toxic recordings intelligently. The effectiveness of this proposed approach is measured in both its detection capabilities and its operational efficiency, by applying a case study of medical records as a sensitive area that tested the performance of this approach.

Currency Recognition and Detection
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Jun 3, 2024·arXiv (Cornell University)
2 cites
No Vandalism: Privacy-Preserving and Byzantine-Robust Federated Learning

Zhibo Xing, Zijian Zhang, Ziang Zhang, Jiamou Liu · 6 authors

Federated learning allows several clients to train one machine learning model jointly without sharing private data, providing privacy protection. However, traditional federated learning is vulnerable to poisoning attacks, which can not only decrease the model performance, but also implant malicious backdoors. In addition, direct submission of local model parameters can also lead to the privacy leakage of the training dataset. In this paper, we aim to build a privacy-preserving and Byzantine-robust federated learning scheme to provide an environment with no vandalism (NoV) against attacks from malicious participants. Specifically, we construct a model filter for poisoned local models, protecting the global model from data and model poisoning attacks. This model filter combines zero-knowledge proofs to provide further privacy protection. Then, we adopt secret sharing to provide verifiable secure aggregation, removing malicious clients that disrupting the aggregation process. Our formal analysis proves that NoV can protect data privacy and weed out Byzantine attackers. Our experiments illustrate that NoV can effectively address data and model poisoning attacks, including PGD, and outperforms other related schemes.

Open access
2 source records
cs.CR
cs.DC
cs.LG
Original source
Jun 1, 2024·Heliyon
6 cites
Secure traceability mechanism of green electricity based on smart contracts and provenance model

Shaoyuan Yu, Jing Yang, Jia Ni, Chun‐Yi Chen · 10 authors

Green and low-carbon development is an important part of global sustainable development. Green power trading provides strong support and assurance for promoting green and low-carbon development. Due to the long cycle of green power data chains and their susceptibility to malicious tampering, the integrity and traceability of data are difficult to guarantee. Therefore, this paper first proposes a security provenance model with enhanced relations based on the core structure of PROV and blockchain technology, which can securely capture provenance records, use the transfer time and number of transactions between various links in the traceability network as reasoning clues, realize the correlation tracing of the green electricity transfer process. Under the model, a traceability mechanism of green electricity is designed based on smart contracts. Trustworthy green electricity data collection is achieved through data filling and data verification techniques. Traceability query technique is adopted to achieve trustworthy traceability of green electricity. And the effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated through simulation experiments.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
May 30, 2024·World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews
6 cites
Securing the AI supply chain: Mitigating vulnerabilities in AI model development and deployment

Isabirye Edward Kezron

The rapid advancement and integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across critical sectors — including healthcare, finance, defense, and infrastructure — have exposed an often-overlooked risk: vulnerabilities within the AI supply chain. This research examines the security challenges and potential threats affecting AI model development and deployment, focusing on adversarial attacks, data poisoning, model theft, and compromised third-party components. By dissecting the AI supply chain into its core stages — data sourcing, model training, deployment, and maintenance — this study identifies key entry points for malicious actors. The paper proposes a multi-layered security framework combining blockchain-based data provenance, federated learning for decentralized model training, and zero-trust architecture to ensure secure deployment. Additionally, it explores how adversarial training, model watermarking, and real-time anomaly detection can mitigate risks without sacrificing model performance. Case studies of high-profile AI breaches are analyzed to demonstrate the consequences of unsecured pipelines, emphasizing the urgency of securing AI systems.

Open access
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
May 20, 2024·IEEE INFOCOM 2024 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications
10 cites
ConFuzz: Towards Large Scale Fuzz Testing of Smart Contracts in Ethereum

Taiyu Wong, Chao Zhang, Yuandong Ni, Mingsen Luo · 9 authors

Fuzzing is effective at finding vulnerabilities in traditional applications and has been adapted to smart contracts. However, existing fuzzing solutions for smart contracts are not smart enough and can hardly be applied to large-scale testing since they heavily rely on source code or ABI. In this paper, we propose a fuzzing solution ConFuzz applicable to large-scale testing, especially for bytecode-only contracts. ConFuzz adopts Adaptive Interface Recovery (AIR) and Function Information Collection (FIC) algorithm to automatically recover the function interfaces and information, supporting fuzzing smart contracts without source code or ABI. Furthermore, ConFuzz employs a Dependence-based Transaction Sequence Generation (DTSG) algorithm to infer dependencies of transactions and generate high-quality sequences to trigger the vulnerabilities. Lastly, ConFuzz utilizes taint analysis and function information to help detect harmful vulnerabilities and reduce false positives. The experiment shows that ConFuzz can accurately recover over 99.7% of function interfaces and reports more vulnerabilities than state-of-the-art solutions with 98.89% precision and 93.69% accuracy. On all 1.4M unique contracts from Ethereum, ConFuzz found over 11.92% vulnerable contracts. To the best of our knowledge, ConFuzz is the first efficient and scalable solution to test all smart contracts deployed in Ethereum.

2 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Original source
May 6, 2024·Measurement Sensors
66 cites
A blockchain based federated deep learning model for secured data transmission in healthcare Iot networks

Gopinath Ganapathy, Sujatha Jamuna Anand, M. Jayaprakash, S. Lakshmi · 6 authors

The wide use of sensors in healthcare applications has made it necessary to have secure communication in healthcare Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The sensor data is sensitive, and can contain extremely confidential information such as medical diagnosis, clinical records, vital signs and health data of patients. The emergence of blockchain as a technology ensures consensus and trust among systems, and is now considered to be a new trend used to achieve high scalability, data integrity and privacy. Federated learning is a new technology based on distributed learning that exploits the concept of trust. In federated learning, each user builds an individual distributed model to help a central server that is accessible only to a trusted user group. This paper harnesses the potential of these approaches and proposes an attack detection model to discern normal user behaviours from that of adversaries in a IoT network. This model is called the Blockchain enabled Federated Learning model for secured communication in healthcare IoT (BFL-hIoT), to secure data in healthcare IoT networks. This model is trained and tested on a standard dataset and demonstrates the highest classification accuracy of 97.16% for normal, 0.9546 for backdoors, 0.9618 for XSS etc., outperforming other blockchain and deep learning models.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 18, 2024·Proceedings of the Nineteenth European Conference on Computer Systems
62 cites
ZKML: An Optimizing System for ML Inference in Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Bing-Jyue Chen, Suppakit Waiwitlikhit, Ion Stoica, Daniel Kang

Machine learning (ML) is increasingly used behind closed systems and APIs to make important decisions. For example, social media uses ML-based recommendation algorithms to decide what to show users, and millions of people pay to use ChatGPT for information every day. Because ML is deployed behind these closed systems, there are increasing calls for transparency, such as releasing model weights. However, these service providers have legitimate reasons not to release this information, including for privacy and trade secrets. To bridge this gap, recent work has proposed using zero-knowledge proofs (specifically a form called ZK-SNARKs) for certifying computation with private models but has only been applied to unrealistically small models.

2 source records
Cryptography and Data Security
Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 17, 2024·Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Volume 1
11 cites
ZENO: A Type-based Optimization Framework for Zero Knowledge Neural Network Inference

Boyuan Feng, Zheng Wang, Yuke Wang, Shu Yang · 5 authors

Zero knowledge Neural Networks draw increasing attention for guaranteeing computation integrity and privacy of neural networks (NNs) based on zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive ARgument of Knowledge (zkSNARK) security scheme. However, the performance of zkSNARK NNs is far from optimal due to the million-scale circuit computation with heavy scalar-level dependency. In this paper, we propose a type-based optimizing framework for efficient zero-knowledge NN inference, namely ZENO (ZEro knowledge Neural network Optimizer). We first introduce ZENO language construct to maintain high-level semantics and the type information (e.g., privacy and tensor) for allowing more aggressive optimizations. We then propose privacy-type driven and tensor-type driven optimizations to further optimize the generated zkSNARK circuit. Finally, we design a set of NN-centric system optimizations to further accelerate zkSNARK NNs. Experimental results show that ZENO achieves up to 8.5× end-to-end speedup than state-of-the-art zkSNARK NNs. We reduce proof time for VGG16 from 6 minutes to 48 seconds, which makes zkSNARK NNs practical.

Open access
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Advanced Neural Network Applications
Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices
Original source
Apr 14, 2024·arXiv (Cornell University)
4 cites
Hunting DeFi Vulnerabilities via Context-Sensitive Concolic Verification

Yepeng Ding, Arthur Gervais, Roger Wattenhofer, Hiroyuki Satō

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is revolutionizing the traditional centralized finance paradigm with its attractive features such as high availability, transparency, and tamper-proofing. However, attacks targeting DeFi services have severely damaged the DeFi market, as evidenced by our investigation of 80 real-world DeFi incidents from 2017 to 2022. Existing methods, based on symbolic execution, model checking, semantic analysis, and fuzzing, fall short in identifying the most DeFi vulnerability types. To address the deficiency, we propose Context-Sensitive Concolic Verification (CSCV), a method of automating the DeFi vulnerability finding based on user-defined properties formulated in temporal logic. CSCV builds and optimizes contexts to guide verification processes that dynamically construct context-carrying transition systems in tandem with concolic executions. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of CSCV through experiments on real-world DeFi services and qualitative comparison. The experiment results show that our CSCV prototype successfully detects 76.25% of the vulnerabilities from the investigated incidents with an average time of 253.06 seconds.

Open access
3 source records
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Security and Verification in Computing
Digital and Cyber Forensics
Original source
Apr 14, 2024·Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings
7 cites
ParSE: Efficient Detection of Smart Contract Vulnerabilities via Parallel and Simplified Symbolic Execution

Long He, Xiangfu Zhao, Yichen Wang

Symbolic execution is a frequently used method for vulnerability detection in smart contracts. However, existing tools face limitations with the constraint solving and may cause the "path explosion" problem. This costs too much time and may lead to False-Negative (FN) of detection results. In this work, we propose ParSE, a novel approach that leverages Parallel and Simplified symbolic Execution to improve both detection efficiency and the number of True-Positive (TP). We inject ParSE into two widely used symbolic execution tools, Oyente and Mythril, for detecting vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Experimental results show that ParSE accelerates to 9.33x and 5.30x for Oyente and Mythril, respectively. Moreover, tools based on ParSE improve the detection number of TP.

Open access
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 13, 2024·arXiv (Cornell University)
2 cites
Proof-of-Learning with Incentive Security

Zishuo Zhao, Zhixuan Fang, Xuechao Wang, Chen, Xi · 7 authors

Most concurrent blockchain systems rely heavily on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanisms for decentralized consensus and security assurance. However, the substantial energy expenditure stemming from computationally intensive yet meaningless tasks has raised considerable concerns surrounding traditional PoW approaches, The PoS mechanism, while free of energy consumption, is subject to security and economic issues. Addressing these issues, the paradigm of Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) seeks to employ challenges of practical significance as PoW, thereby imbuing energy consumption with tangible value. While previous efforts in Proof of Learning (PoL) explored the utilization of deep learning model training SGD tasks as PoUW challenges, recent research has revealed its vulnerabilities to adversarial attacks and the theoretical hardness in crafting a byzantine-secure PoL mechanism. In this paper, we introduce the concept of incentive-security that incentivizes rational provers to behave honestly for their best interest, bypassing the existing hardness to design a PoL mechanism with computational efficiency, a provable incentive-security guarantee and controllable difficulty. Particularly, our work is secure against two attacks, and also improves the computational overhead from $Θ(1)$ to $O(\frac{\log E}{E})$. Furthermore, while most recent research assumes trusted problem providers and verifiers, our design also guarantees frontend incentive-security even when problem providers are untrusted, and verifier incentive-security that bypasses the Verifier's Dilemma. By incorporating ML training into blockchain consensus mechanisms with provable guarantees, our research not only proposes an eco-friendly solution to blockchain systems, but also provides a proposal for a completely decentralized computing power market in the new AI age.

Open access
2 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Cryptography and Data Security
Original source
Apr 12, 2024·Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering
18 cites
PrettySmart: Detecting Permission Re-delegation Vulnerability for Token Behaviors in Smart Contracts

Zhijie Zhong, Zibin Zheng, Hong‐Ning Dai, Qing Xue · 6 authors

As an essential component in Ethereum and other blockchains, token assets have been interacted with by diverse smart contracts. Effective permission policies of smart contracts must prevent token assets from being manipulated by unauthorized adversaries. Recent efforts have studied the accessibility of privileged functions or state variables to unauthorized users. However, little attention is paid to how publicly accessible functions of smart contracts can be manipulated by adversaries to steal users' digital assets. This attack is mainly caused by the permission re-delegation (PRD) vulnerability. In this work, we propose PrettySmart, a bytecode-level Permission re-delegation vulnerability detector for Smart contracts. Our study begins with an empirical study on 0.43 million open-source smart contracts, revealing that five types of widely-used permission constraints dominate 98% of the studied contracts. Accordingly, we propose a mechanism to infer these permission constraints, as well as an algorithm to identify constraints that can be bypassed by unauthorized adversaries. Based on the identification of permission constraints, we propose to detect whether adversaries could manipulate the privileged token management functionalities of smart contracts. The experimental results on real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed PrettySmart, which achieves the highest precision score and detects 118 new PRD vulnerabilities.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 8, 2024·Proceedings of the 39th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing
9 cites
Modeling and verification of smart contracts with Abstract State Machines

Chiara Braghin, Elvinia Riccobene, Simone Valentini

Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed ledger system that records and verifies transactions across a network of computers and ensures transparency, immutability, and trustworthiness. Smart contracts are programs or protocols embedded into the distributed ledgers and are used to automate agreements between parties of a blockchain. Smart contracts are vulnerable to attacks due to their immutable and public nature, thus, it is important to guarantee the correctness of contracts already at design-time in order to avoid catastrophic events and huge loss of money.

Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Supply Chain and Inventory Management
Original source
Apr 6, 2024·2024 IEEE 13th International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies (CSNT)
0 cites
Ethical Considerations and Implications of Distributed Intelligence

Gulab Sah, Vandana Ch, Laxmi Pranathi, Guguloth Mukesh Nayak · 5 authors

Given the importance of distributed intelligence systems in modern computers, their ethical implications must be examined. The innovative Ethical-Aware Distributed Intelligence Framework (EADI) tackles ethical issues in decentralized decision-making. EADI's robust algorithms protect privacy, advance accountability, and decrease prejudices. Distributed intelligence becomes more accountable and fairer. The revolutionary Privacy-keeping Distributed Learning Algorithm (PPDLA) from EADI protects data inputs and privacy during collaborative training using noise. This method improves privacy over linear regression and support vector machines. The transparent and distributed ledger created by the Decentralized accountability Record Algorithm (DALA) simplifies monitoring and enforcing accountability. EADI beats decision trees and k-nearest neighbors, even with different feedback metrics. The Fairness-Aware Decentralized Decision Algorithm (FADDA) designed by EADI mitigates decision-making shortcomings to provide fair results. EADI surpasses existing techniques in various sectors to create and execute ethical distributed intelligence. This makes intelligent decision-making clearer and more reliable.

Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 3, 2024·Scientific Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technologies
0 cites
Blockchain + AI in Combating Deepfake Content Circulation

Prof. MSR Prasad

The rapid proliferation of AI-generated “deepfake” images, audio, and video is eroding public trust in digital media and amplifying risks to elections, markets, journalism, and personal safety. While AI detection models have improved, they face an adversarial “cat-and-mouse” problem and often struggle to generalize across manipulation methods and compression regimes. This manuscript proposes and analyzes a hybrid, end-to-end approach that couples upstream provenance and authenticity signals—anchored via open standards (e.g., C2PA Content Credentials) and decentralized ledgers—with downstream AI detection and moderation. The pipeline captures and signs media at source; binds verifiable, tamper-evident metadata; anchors cryptographic hashes on a public or consortium blockchain; stores originals off-chain with content addressing (e.g., IPFS/Filecoin); and fuses these trust signals with model-based detectors and policy engines at distribution edges. We situate the proposal within current regulation (e.g., EU AI Act transparency duties) and state-of-the-art methods (e.g., watermarking such as SynthID, Stable Signature, and Tree-Ring; deepfake detectors trained on DFDC and FaceForensics++), highlighting both strengths and known attack vectors against watermarking that motivate layered defenses. A simulation-based evaluation illustrates that combining provenance signals with video-level transformer detectors can raise F1 from 0.85 to 0.92 while cutting false positives by ~41% in a balanced test set, primarily by rejecting credential-mismatched or hash-divergent media before expensive model inference. We further discuss privacy-preserving verification using W3C Verifiable Credentials (VC 2.0), Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), and selective-disclosure with zero-knowledge proofs. The findings make a practical case for “trust by design” built on open standards, decentralized integrity proofs, and robust AI detection, implemented as a policy-aware defense-in-depth stack for platforms and newsrooms.

Open access
Advanced Malware Detection Techniques
Digital Media Forensic Detection
Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning
Original source
Apr 1, 2024·in IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 22697-22715, 15 June15, 2024
12 cites
A Blockchain-based Reliable Federated Meta-learning for Metaverse: A Dual Game Framework

Emna Baccour, Aiman Erbad, Amr Mohamed, Mounir Hamdi · 5 authors

The metaverse, envisioned as the next digital frontier for avatar-based virtual interaction, involves high-performance models. In this dynamic environment, users' tasks frequently shift, requiring fast model personalization despite limited data. This evolution consumes extensive resources and requires vast data volumes. To address this, meta-learning emerges as an invaluable tool for metaverse users, with federated meta-learning (FML), offering even more tailored solutions owing to its adaptive capabilities. However, the metaverse is characterized by users heterogeneity with diverse data structures, varied tasks, and uneven sample sizes, potentially undermining global training outcomes due to statistical difference. Given this, an urgent need arises for smart coalition formation that accounts for these disparities. This paper introduces a dual game-theoretic framework for metaverse services involving meta-learners as workers to manage FML. A blockchain-based cooperative coalition formation game is crafted, grounded on a reputation metric, user similarity, and incentives. We also introduce a novel reputation system based on users' historical contributions and potential contributions to present tasks, leveraging correlations between past and new tasks. Finally, a Stackelberg game-based incentive mechanism is presented to attract reliable workers to participate in meta-learning, minimizing users' energy costs, increasing payoffs, boosting FML efficacy, and improving metaverse utility. Results show that our dual game framework outperforms best-effort, random, and non-uniform clustering schemes - improving training performance by up to 10%, cutting completion times by as much as 30%, enhancing metaverse utility by more than 25%, and offering up to 5% boost in training efficiency over non-blockchain systems, effectively countering misbehaving users.

Open access
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cs.DC
cs.AI
cs.GT
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