arXiv subjects

Michael Kühr

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Kühr.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Spectrum Strikes Back: Infrared POV Attacks on Traffic Sign Classification

Traffic sign classification is a crucial task for autonomous vehicles, and numerous attacks against it have been identified. A majority of physical adversarial attacks involve attaching patches to traffic signs or projecting perturbations on them. While they demonstrate high effectiveness, they are perceptible to humans. At the same time, light-based attacks outside the human visible spectrum are known but have limitations in their dynamic adaptability. We propose a persistence-of-vision-based attack that operates in the near-infrared light spectrum. With the possibility of showing dynamic, remotely triggered content, this allows a stealthy physical adversarial attack against traffic sign classification. By identifying the optimal position through digital simulation, we conduct extensive real-world evaluations using two different traffic signs, 12 machine learning models from different families, multiple distances up to 20 meters, and varying illumination conditions. Our evaluation shows high attack success rates across our test scenarios. We propose near-infrared cutoff filters and a software-based detection mechanism as defenses, and tackle limitations of the near-infrared persistence of vision display by prototyping a human-visible RGB version of it.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

Toward Inherently Robust VLMs Against Visual Perception Attacks

Autonomous vehicles rely on deep neural networks (DNNs) for traffic sign recognition, lane centering, and vehicle detection, yet these models are vulnerable to attacks that induce misclassification and threaten safety. Existing defenses (e.g., adversarial training) often fail to generalize and degrade clean accuracy. We introduce Vehicle Vision-Language Models (V2LMs), fine-tuned vision-language models specialized for autonomous vehicle perception, and show that they are inherently more robust to unseen attacks without adversarial training, maintaining substantially higher adversarial accuracy than conventional DNNs. We study two deployments: Solo (task-specific V2LMs) and Tandem (a single V2LM for all three tasks). Under attacks, DNNs drop 33-74%, whereas V2LMs decline by under 8% on average. Tandem achieves comparable robustness to Solo while being more memory-efficient. We also explore integrating V2LMs in parallel with existing perception stacks to enhance resilience. Our results suggest V2LMs are a promising path toward secure, robust AV perception.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

SoK: Security of the Image Processing Pipeline for Camera-based Sensing in Autonomous Vehicles

Cameras capture images that are essential for many safety-critical tasks. To process these images, a complex pipeline with multiple layers is used. Security attacks on this pipeline can severely affect passenger safety and system performance. However, many attacks presented in scientific literature overlook the fact that there are different layers and, hence, the feasibility and impact of these attacks can vary. While there has been research to improve the quality and robustness of the image processing pipeline, these efforts are often orthogonal to security research without exploiting potential overlap and synergies. In this work, we aim to bridge this gap by combining security and robustness research for the image processing pipeline in autonomous vehicles. We thoroughly investigated the body of literature on the security and robustness of the image processing pipeline and selected 92 papers for deeper discussion in this SoK. For the security domain, we classify the risk of attacks using the automotive security standard ISO 21434, emphasizing the need to consider all layers for overall system security. With our online tool TARA-CAM, we propose an interactive method to perform threat analysis and risk assessment following the ISO standard. We also demonstrate how existing robustness research can help mitigate the impact of attacks, addressing the current research gap. Finally, we present PICT, an embedded open-source testbed that can influence various parameters across all layers, allowing researchers to analyze the effects of different defense strategies and attack impacts. With this SoK, we contribute a comprehensive discussion and systematic analysis of existing approaches to image processing pipeline security and robustness, together with an open-source tool and testbed that jointly facilitates hardening the image processing pipeline against existing and future security attacks.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2024

REACT: Autonomous Intrusion Response System for Intelligent Vehicles

Autonomous and connected vehicles are rapidly evolving, integrating numerous technologies and software. This progress, however, has made them appealing targets for cybersecurity attacks. As the risk of cyber threats escalates with this advancement, the focus is shifting from solely preventing these attacks to also mitigating their impact. Current solutions rely on vehicle security operation centers, where attack information is analyzed before deciding on a response strategy. However, this process can be time-consuming and faces scalability challenges, along with other issues stemming from vehicle connectivity. This paper proposes a dynamic intrusion response system integrated within the vehicle. This system enables the vehicle to respond to a variety of incidents almost instantly, thereby reducing the need for interaction with the vehicle security operation center. The system offers a comprehensive list of potential responses, a methodology for response evaluation, and various response selection methods. The proposed solution was implemented on an embedded platform. Two distinct cyberattack use cases served as the basis for evaluating the system. The evaluation highlights the system's adaptability, its ability to respond swiftly, its minimal memory footprint, and its capacity for dynamic system parameter adjustments. The proposed solution underscores the necessity and feasibility of incorporating dynamic response mechanisms in smart vehicles. This is a crucial factor in ensuring the safety and resilience of future smart mobility.

cs.CR↗