Fenics: A Modular Framework for Security Evaluation in Decentralized Federated Learning
Paper i proceeding, 2025

This paper presents Fenics, a modular framework for evaluating the resilience of Decentralized Federated Learning (DFL) networks under adversarial conditions. As a nascent field, DFL raises security challenges in decentralized network settings under adversarial behaviors. To our knowledge, Fenics is the first fully open-source framework of its kind, enabling user-defined topologies, multiple communication protocols, and customizable attack models to study how malicious node placement affects network performance. It integrates core components of DFL, including data distribution, dynamic node participation, and aggregation to establish the DFL architecture. We demonstrate the framework’s capabilities through different use cases under poisoning and delay attacks using the FashionMNIST dataset. The results validate its capability to reveal how node placement affects performance and expose network vulnerabilities. For example, poisoning attacks exhibit topology-dependent impacts, with accuracy dropping by over 55% in certain scenarios, leading to derailed convergence. Additionally, the extensive logging features of the framework enable post-simulation analysis and insightful interpretation. Its modular architecture, simple deployment, and customizable options make it a lightweight yet useful tool for in-depth research on DFL network security.

Framework

Decentralized Federated Learning

Malicious nodes

Convergence

Författare

Shubham Saha

Student vid Chalmers

Sifat Nawrin Nova

Göteborgs universitet

Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Datorteknik

Romaric Duvignau

Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Dator- och nätverkssystem

Göteborgs universitet

Carla Fabiana Chiasserini

Politecnico di Torino

Göteborgs universitet

Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Dator- och nätverkssystem

DEBS '25: Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-based Systems

146-151
979-8-4007-1332-3 (ISBN)

19th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-based Systems, DEBS 2025
Gothenburg, Sweden,

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Datavetenskap (datalogi)

Säkerhet, integritet och kryptologi

Nätverks-, parallell- och distribuerad beräkning

Datorsystem

DOI

10.1145/3701717.3730550

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2025-09-24