Towards a Novel Perspective on Adversarial Examples Driven by Frequency
Zhun Zhang Yi Zeng Qihe Liu Shijie Zhou
Enhancing our understanding of adversarial examples is crucial for the secure
application of machine learning models in real-world scenarios. A prevalent
method for analyzing adversarial examples is through a frequency-based
approach. However, existing research indicates that attacks designed to exploit
low-frequency or high-frequency information can enhance attack performance,
leading to an unclear relationship between adversarial perturbations and
different frequency components. In this paper, we seek to demystify this
relationship by exploring the characteristics of adversarial perturbations
within the frequency domain. We employ wavelet packet decomposition for
detailed frequency analysis of adversarial examples and conduct statistical
examinations across various frequency bands. Intriguingly, our findings
indicate that significant adversarial perturbations are present within the
high-frequency components of low-frequency bands. Drawing on this insight, we
propose a black-box adversarial attack algorithm based on combining different
frequency bands. Experiments conducted on multiple datasets and models
demonstrate that combining low-frequency bands and high-frequency components of
low-frequency bands can significantly enhance attack efficiency. The average
attack success rate reaches 99\%, surpassing attacks that utilize a single
frequency segment. Additionally, we introduce the normalized disturbance
visibility index as a solution to the limitations of $L_2$ norm in assessing
continuous and discrete perturbations.