Lab Overview

This advanced lab provides hands-on experience with AI security assessment techniques. You'll test machine learning models for vulnerabilities, perform adversarial attacks, analyze model robustness, and understand the unique security challenges of AI systems. The lab covers both offensive AI security testing and defensive hardening techniques.

Learning Objectives

Prerequisites

šŸ—ļø Lab Environment Setup

Environment Requirements

Setting up the AI security testing environment with all necessary tools and frameworks.

  • Python 3.8+ with ML libraries
  • Jupyter Notebook environment
  • GPU support for model training
  • Adversarial Robustness Toolbox
  • CleverHans library
  • Foolbox framework

Target Models

Pre-trained models and datasets for security testing scenarios.

  • Image classification models (CIFAR-10, ImageNet)
  • Natural language processing models
  • Malware detection classifiers
  • Fraud detection systems
  • Facial recognition models

Testing Frameworks

Specialized tools and frameworks for AI security assessment.

  • Adversarial Robustness Toolbox (ART)
  • CleverHans adversarial examples
  • Foolbox attack implementations
  • TextAttack for NLP models
  • Custom attack implementations

šŸŽÆ Lab Exercises

Exercise 1: Adversarial Example Generation

Objective: Generate adversarial examples using multiple attack methods to fool image classification models.

Duration: 2-3 hours

Scenario: You're testing a facial recognition system used for access control. Generate adversarial examples that can bypass the system while maintaining visual similarity to the original image.

Tasks:

  1. Load a pre-trained image classification model
  2. Implement FGSM (Fast Gradient Sign Method) attacks
  3. Execute PGD (Projected Gradient Descent) attacks
  4. Generate Carlini & Wagner (C&W) adversarial examples
  5. Compare attack success rates and perturbation levels
  6. Test adversarial examples in physical world conditions

Expected Outcomes:

  • Successfully generate adversarial examples for multiple attack methods
  • Understand trade-offs between attack success and perturbation visibility
  • Analyze model vulnerability to different attack types

Exercise 2: Model Extraction Attack

Objective: Extract a machine learning model through black-box queries and train a surrogate model.

Duration: 3-4 hours

Scenario: A company has deployed a proprietary malware detection API. Your task is to extract the underlying model without direct access to its parameters.

Tasks:

  1. Set up a black-box model API simulation
  2. Generate synthetic training data
  3. Query the target model to collect training samples
  4. Train a surrogate model using collected data
  5. Evaluate surrogate model fidelity
  6. Analyze extraction efficiency and data requirements

Expected Outcomes:

  • Successfully extract a functional model replica
  • Understand the relationship between query budget and extraction success
  • Identify defense mechanisms against model extraction

Exercise 3: Data Poisoning Attack

Objective: Poison a machine learning model's training data to introduce backdoors or degrade performance.

Duration: 2-3 hours

Scenario: Test the resilience of a spam detection system against data poisoning attacks that could allow malicious emails to bypass filtering.

Tasks:

  1. Prepare clean training dataset
  2. Design backdoor triggers for email classification
  3. Inject poisoned samples into training data
  4. Train model with poisoned dataset
  5. Test backdoor activation with trigger patterns
  6. Analyze impact on overall model performance

Expected Outcomes:

  • Successfully implement backdoor attacks
  • Understand data poisoning attack vectors
  • Evaluate model resilience to poisoning

Exercise 4: Privacy Attack Analysis

Objective: Perform membership inference and model inversion attacks to extract sensitive information.

Duration: 2-3 hours

Scenario: Assess the privacy risks of a machine learning model trained on sensitive healthcare data.

Tasks:

  1. Implement membership inference attacks
  2. Perform model inversion to reconstruct training data
  3. Analyze attribute inference capabilities
  4. Test differential privacy defenses
  5. Evaluate privacy-utility trade-offs
  6. Implement privacy-preserving techniques

Expected Outcomes:

  • Understand privacy risks in machine learning
  • Implement privacy attack techniques
  • Evaluate privacy-preserving defenses

Exercise 5: AI Security Defense Implementation

Objective: Implement and test various AI security defense mechanisms.

Duration: 3-4 hours

Scenario: Hardening an AI system against the attacks learned in previous exercises.

Tasks:

  1. Implement adversarial training defense
  2. Deploy input preprocessing techniques
  3. Test model ensemble approaches
  4. Implement detection-based defenses
  5. Apply certified defense methods
  6. Evaluate defense effectiveness against multiple attacks

Expected Outcomes:

  • Understand AI security defense mechanisms
  • Implement robust AI security controls
  • Evaluate defense trade-offs and limitations

šŸ› ļø Lab Tools & Resources

Attack Frameworks

  • Adversarial Robustness Toolbox: IBM's comprehensive attack library
  • CleverHans: TensorFlow adversarial examples library
  • Foolbox: Python adversarial attacks framework
  • TextAttack: NLP adversarial attacks
  • ART: Adversarial Robustness Toolbox

Defense Tools

  • Defense-GAN: Generative adversarial defense
  • MADRY: Adversarial training framework
  • Certified Defenses: Provably robust defenses
  • Differential Privacy: Privacy-preserving ML
  • Federated Learning: Distributed ML security

Analysis Tools

  • MLflow: ML lifecycle management
  • Weights & Biases: Experiment tracking
  • TensorBoard: Model visualization
  • SHAP: Model interpretability
  • LIME: Local interpretable explanations

šŸ“Š Lab Assessment

Attack Success Metrics

Measuring the effectiveness of adversarial attacks and security assessments.

  • Attack success rate percentage
  • Perturbation magnitude (L2, Lāˆž norms)
  • Query efficiency for black-box attacks
  • Transferability across model architectures
  • Physical world attack success rates

Defense Evaluation

Assessing the robustness of implemented security defenses.

  • Robust accuracy against attacks
  • Clean accuracy preservation
  • Computational overhead analysis
  • Defense generalization across attack types
  • Privacy-utility trade-off evaluation

Risk Assessment

Evaluating overall AI system security posture.

  • Vulnerability severity classification
  • Attack surface analysis
  • Threat model completeness
  • Security control effectiveness
  • Compliance with AI security standards

šŸŽÆ Advanced Challenges

Challenge 1: Multi-Modal Attack

Develop adversarial examples that work across multiple input modalities (image + text).

  • Cross-modal consistency requirements
  • Multi-objective optimization
  • Real-world deployment constraints

Challenge 2: Federated Learning Attack

Design attacks against federated learning systems with privacy constraints.

  • Byzantine attack simulation
  • Privacy budget exploitation
  • Distributed system vulnerabilities

Challenge 3: Real-Time Defense

Implement real-time adversarial example detection and mitigation.

  • Low-latency detection requirements
  • Automated response mechanisms
  • Performance optimization techniques

šŸ“‹ Lab Deliverables

šŸ“š Additional Resources

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