Network Structures as an Attack Surface: Topology-Based Privacy Leakage in Federated Learning

This paper identifies network topology as a fundamental privacy vulnerability in federated learning systems, demonstrating that adversaries can infer sensitive data distribution patterns through communication patterns, parameter magnitudes, and structural correlations even under strong differential privacy guarantees.

June 2025 · Murtaza Rangwala, Richard O. Sinnott, Rajkumar Buyya