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Elena Ferrari

Publications and source records attributed to Elena Ferrari.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

Concept-Level Risk and Calibration for Governance in Diffusion Foundation Models

Diffusion models have become a core paradigm for multimedia generation, offering powerful concept-driven controllability for personalization, semantic editing, and selective unlearning. However, as semantic control extends beyond natural-language prompts to learned embeddings and intervention pipelines, the safety and governance of these systems become increasingly difficult to evaluate in a unified manner, especially for safety-sensitive, identity-linked, and other privacy-relevant concepts. Existing studies mainly rely on heuristic audits, adversarial probing, or task-specific erasure benchmarks, and therefore provide limited support for systematic comparison across models, conditioning channels, and deployment conditions. We present a concept-level probabilistic audit and reporting framework for diffusion models. We formalize governance-relevant concept behaviors as Bernoulli semantic events induced by stochastic generation, and define a Concept Risk Operator that maps model-channel configurations to structured risk profiles, enabling comparison across prompting interfaces, learned embedding channels, models, and recorded conditions. We apply sample-level post-hoc calibration and configuration-level risk aggregation, and show that probability error can change thresholded actions near policy boundaries. Experiments on SD1.5, SD2.1, and SDXL reveal consistent yet non-uniform operational risk patterns across concept families, channels, recorded conditions, and shifted protocols. In particular, embedding-based access and obfuscated prompts expose risks often understated by standard-prompt evaluation. A pooled multi-protocol calibrator improves held-out probability reliability, but we do not claim transfer from a standard-only calibrator. CLRC provides a common audit schema for probabilistic and decision-aware governance of multimedia generation systems.

cs.MM

PrivacyAssist: A User-Centric Agent Framework for Detecting Privacy Inconsistencies in Android Apps

Mobile apps offer significant benefits, but their privacy protections often remain ineffective and confusing for users. While prior work mainly analyzes app privacy vulnerabilities, few approaches help users understand, set, and enforce their privacy preferences. This paper presents PrivacyAssist, a multi-agent LLM-based platform that detects inconsistencies between user-granted permissions and developers' declared sensitive data collection and sharing practices. Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), PrivacyAssist provides concise explanations and real-time on-device warnings to support informed installation decisions. We evaluate PrivacyAssist with 200 users and 2,347 Android apps, finding that only 16% of apps are fully consistent between granted permissions and declared data practices.

cs.CR

LoRA-based Parameter-Efficient LLMs for Continuous Learning in Edge-based Malware Detection

The proliferation of edge devices has created an urgent need for security solutions capable of detecting malware in real time while operating under strict computational and memory constraints. Recently, Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in recognizing complex patterns, yet their deployment on edge devices remains impractical due to their resource demands. However, in edge malware detection, static or centrally retrained models degrade under evolving threats and heterogeneous traffic; locally trained models become siloed and fail to transfer across domains. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we present a continuous learning architecture for edge-based malware detection that combines local adaptation on each device with global knowledge sharing through parameter-efficient LoRA adapters. Lightweight transformer models (DistilBERT, DistilGPT-2, TinyT5) run on edge nodes and are incrementally fine-tuned on device-specific traffic; only the resulting LoRA modules are aggregated by a lightweight coordinator and redistributed, enabling cross-device generalization without exchanging raw data. We evaluate on two public IoT security datasets, Edge-IIoTset and TON-IoT, under multi-round learning to simulate evolving threats. Compared to isolated fine-tuning, the LoRA-based exchange yields up to 20-25% accuracy gains when models encounter previously unseen attacks from another domain, while maintaining stable loss and F1 across rounds. LoRA adds less than 1% to model size (~0.6-1.8 MB), making updates practical for constrained edge hardware.

cs.CR

LLMs on support of privacy and security of mobile apps: state of the art and research directions

Modern life has witnessed the explosion of mobile devices. However, besides the valuable features that bring convenience to end users, security and privacy risks still threaten users of mobile apps. The increasing sophistication of these threats in recent years has underscored the need for more advanced and efficient detection approaches. In this chapter, we explore the application of Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify security risks and privacy violations and mitigate them for the mobile application ecosystem. By introducing state-of-the-art research that applied LLMs to mitigate the top 10 common security risks of smartphone platforms, we highlight the feasibility and potential of LLMs to replace traditional analysis methods, such as dynamic and hybrid analysis of mobile apps. As a representative example of LLM-based solutions, we present an approach to detect sensitive data leakage when users share images online, a common behavior of smartphone users nowadays. Finally, we discuss open research challenges.

cs.CR

Effect of chromatic dispersion on image size and lattice plane curvature measurements with Rocking Curve Imaging

ADP crystals of large dimensions (80x80x20 mm3), to be used as a X-ray beam expanders in the BEaTriX facility at INAF-OABrera, have been characterised at BM05 beamline at ESRF synchrotron with the main purpose to determine lattice plane curvature with a unprecedent accuracy, as the BEaTriX setup requires a radius of curvature larger than 22 km. In this beamline, the monochromator is made by 2 Si(111) parallel crystals in the non-dispersive configuration. Due to the difference in the Bragg angles between the Si(111) monochromator and the ADP(008) diffractions, only a limited part of the sample area, hit by the X-ray beam (11x11 mm2 cross section), produced a diffracted beam for a given value of angle of incidence. In the rocking curve imaging techniques, a full image of the sample for a given peak position is obtained by combining images taken at different angles of incidence compensated by the dispersion correction, that is the Bragg condition difference in different points of the sample. It is found that the resulting image size parallel to the scattering plane is affected by this dispersion correction. A 4.5 % elongation along the scattering plane was evaluated in the present Bragg case. This contribution is opposite in the Laue case.

physics.ins-det

Malware Detection at the Edge with Lightweight LLMs: A Performance Evaluation

The rapid evolution of malware attacks calls for the development of innovative detection methods, especially in resource-constrained edge computing. Traditional detection techniques struggle to keep up with modern malware's sophistication and adaptability, prompting a shift towards advanced methodologies like those leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) for enhanced malware detection. However, deploying LLMs for malware detection directly at edge devices raises several challenges, including ensuring accuracy in constrained environments and addressing edge devices' energy and computational limits. To tackle these challenges, this paper proposes an architecture leveraging lightweight LLMs' strengths while addressing limitations like reduced accuracy and insufficient computational power. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed lightweight LLM-based approach for edge computing, we perform an extensive experimental evaluation using several state-of-the-art lightweight LLMs. We test them with several publicly available datasets specifically designed for edge and IoT scenarios and different edge nodes with varying computational power and characteristics.

cs.CR

Less is More: Simplifying Network Traffic Classification Leveraging RFCs

The rapid growth of encryption has significantly enhanced privacy and security while posing challenges for network traffic classification. Recent approaches address these challenges by transforming network traffic into text or image formats to leverage deep-learning models originally designed for natural language processing, and computer vision. However, these transformations often contradict network protocol specifications, introduce noisy features, and result in resource-intensive processes. To overcome these limitations, we propose NetMatrix, a minimalistic tabular representation of network traffic that eliminates noisy attributes and focuses on meaningful features leveraging RFCs (Request for Comments) definitions. By combining NetMatrix with a vanilla XGBoost classifier, we implement a lightweight approach, LiM ("Less is More") that achieves classification performance on par with state-of-the-art methods such as ET-BERT and YaTC. Compared to selected baselines, experimental evaluations demonstrate that LiM improves resource consumption by orders of magnitude. Overall, this study underscores the effectiveness of simplicity in traffic representation and machine learning model selection, paving the way towards resource-efficient network traffic classification.

cs.CR

Crypto-Ransomware and Their Defenses: In-depth Behavioral Characterization, Discussion of Deployability, and New Insights

Crypto-ransomware has caused an unprecedented scope of impact in recent years with an evolving level of sophistication. An extensive range of studies have been on defending against ransomware and reviewing the efficacy of various protections. However, for practical defenses, deployability holds equal significance as detection accuracy. Therefore, in this study, we review 117 published ransomware defense works, categorize them by the level they are implemented at, and discuss the deployability. API-based solutions are easy to deploy and most existing works focus on machine learning-based classification. To provide more insights, we quantitively characterize the runtime behaviors of real-world ransomware samples. Based on our experimental findings, we present a possible future detection direction with our consistency analysis and API-contrast-based refinement. Moreover, we experimentally evaluate various commercial defenses and identify the security gaps. Our findings help the field understand the deployability of ransomware defenses and create more effective, practical solutions.

cs.CR

Temperature induced Neutral to Ionic phase Transition of the charge transfer crystal Tetrathiafulvalene-Fluoranil

The Temperature Induced Neutral to Ionic phase Transition (TI-NIT) is a rare phenomenon occurring in mixed stack charge transfer (CT) crystals made up of alternating $\pi$-electron Donor (D) and Acceptor (A) molecules. We were able to grow crystals of Tetrathiafulvalene-Fluoranil (TTF-FA), and to show that it undergoes TI-NIT like the prototype CT crystal TTF-Chloranil. We characterized both room and low T phases through IR and Raman spectroscopy and XRD, demonstrating that while TTF-FA is quasi-neutral at room T, its ionicity jumps from 0.15 to 0.7 at low T, therefore crossing the Neutral-Ionic borderline. The transition, occuring around 150K, is first order, with large thermal hysteresis and accompanied by crystal cracking. In the high T phase D and A molecules lie on inversion center, i.e. the stacks are regular, whereas the low T phase is characterized by the loss of the inversion symmetry along the stack as the stacks are strongly dimerized and by the doubling of the unit cell.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Tetramethylbenzidine-TetrafluoroTCNQ: A narrow-gap semiconducting salt with room temperature relaxor ferroelectric behavior

We present an extension and revision of the spectroscopic and structural data of the mixed stack charge transfer (CT) crystal 3,3$^\prime$,5,5$^\prime$-tetramethylbenzidine--tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TMB-TCNQF4), associated with new electric and dielectric measurements. Refinement of syncrotron structural data at low temperature has led to revise the previously reported [Phys. Rev. Mat. 2, 024602 (2018)] $C2/m$ structure. The revised structure is $P2_1/m$, with two dimerized stacks per unit cell, and is consistent with the vibrational data. However, polarized Raman data in the low-frequency region also indicate that by increasing temperature above 200 K the structure presents an increasing degree of disorder mainly along the stack axis. X-ray diffraction data at room temperature have confirmed that the correct structure is $P2_1/m$ -- no phase transitions -- but did not allow to definitely substantiate the presence of disorder. On the other hand, dielectric measurement have evidenced a typical relaxor ferroelectric behavior already at room temperature, with a peak in real part of dielectric constant $\epsilon'(T,\nu)$ around 200 K and 0.1 Hz. The relaxor behavior is explained in terms of the presence of spin solitons separating domains of opposite polarity that yield to ferroelectric nanodomains. TMB-TCNQF4 is confirmed to be a narrow gap band semiconductor ($E_a \sim 0.3$ eV) with room temperature conductivity of $\sim 10^{-4}~ \Omega^{-1}$ cm$^{-1}$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

AutoBotCatcher: Blockchain-based P2P Botnet Detection for the Internet of Things

In general, a botnet is a collection of compromised internet computers, controlled by attackers for malicious purposes. To increase attacks' success chance and resilience against defence mechanisms, modern botnets have often a decentralized P2P structure. Here, IoT devices are playing a critical role, becoming one of the major tools for malicious parties to perform attacks. Notable examples are DDoS attacks on Krebs on Security and DYN, which have been performed by IoT devices part of botnets. We take a first step towards detecting P2P botnets in IoT, by proposing AutoBotCatcher, whose design is driven by the consideration that bots of the same botnet frequently communicate with each other and form communities. As such, the purpose of AutoBotCatcher is to dynamically analyze communities of IoT devices, formed according to their network traffic flows, to detect botnets. AutoBotCatcher exploits a permissioned Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) blockchain, as a state transition machine that allows collaboration of a set of pre-identified parties without trust, in order to perform collaborative and dynamic botnet detection by collecting and auditing IoT devices' network traffic flows as blockchain transactions. In this paper, we focus on the design of the AutoBotCatcher by first defining the blockchain structure underlying AutoBotCatcher, then discussing its components.

cs.CR

Hybrid-IoT: Hybrid Blockchain Architecture for Internet of Things - PoW Sub-blockchains

From its early days the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved into a decentralized system of cooperating smart objects with the requirement, among others, of achieving distributed consensus. Yet, current IoT platform solutions are centralized cloud based computing infrastructures, manifesting a number of significant disadvantages, such as, among others, high cloud server maintenance costs, weakness for supporting time-critical IoT applications, security and trust issues. Enabling blockchain technology into IoT can help to achieve a proper distributed consensus based IoT system that overcomes those disadvantages. While this is an ideal match, it is still a challenging endeavor. In this paper we take a first step towards that goal by designing Hybrid-IoT, a hybrid blockchain architecture for IoT. In Hybrid-IoT, subgroups of IoT devices form PoW blockchains, referred to as PoW sub-blockchains. Then, the connection among the PoW sub-blockchains employs a BFT inter-connector framework, such as Polkadot or Cosmos. In this paper we focus on the PoW sub-blockchains formation, guided by a set of guidelines based on a set of dimensions, metrics and bounds. In order to prove the validity of the approach we carry a performance and security evaluation.

cs.DC

Decentralizing Privacy Enforcement for Internet of Things Smart Objects

Internet of Things (IoT) is now evolving into a loosely coupled, decentralized system of cooperating smart objects, where high- speed data processing, analytics and shorter response times are becoming more necessary than ever. Such decentralization has a great impact on the way personal information generated and consumed by smart objects should be protected, because, without centralized data management, it is more difficult to control how data are combined and used by smart objects. To cope with this issue, in this paper, we propose a framework where users of smart objects can specify their privacy preferences. Compliance check of user individual privacy preferences is performed directly by smart objects. Moreover, acknowledging that embedding the enforcement mechanism into smart objects implies some overhead, we have extensively tested the proposed framework on different scenarios, and the obtained results show the feasibility of our approach.

cs.CR

Multi-dimensional Conversation Analysis across Online Social Networks

With the advance of the Internet, ordinary users have created multiple personal accounts on online social networks, and interactions among these social network users have recently been tagged with location information. In this work, we observe user interactions across two popular online social networks, Facebook and Twitter, and analyze which factors lead to retweet/like interactions for tweets/posts. In addition to the named entities, lexical errors and expressed sentiments in these data items, we also consider the impact of shared user locations on user interactions. In particular, we show that geolocations of users can greatly affect which social network post/tweet will be liked/ retweeted. We believe that the results of our analysis can help researchers to understand which social network content will have better visibility.

cs.SI

Risks of Friendships on Social Networks

In this paper, we explore the risks of friends in social networks caused by their friendship patterns, by using real life social network data and starting from a previously defined risk model. Particularly, we observe that risks of friendships can be mined by analyzing users' attitude towards friends of friends. This allows us to give new insights into friendship and risk dynamics on social networks.

cs.SI