Towards Benchmarking the Robustness of Neuro-Symbolic Learning against Data Poisoning Backdoor Attacks

Evaluating the Robustness of Logic Tensor Networks under BadNet attacks

Bachelor Thesis (2025)
Author(s)

M.C. Guranda (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Contributor(s)

Kaitai Liang – Mentor (TU Delft - Cyber Security)

A. Agiollo – Mentor (TU Delft - Cyber Security)

A. Hanjalic – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Intelligent Systems)

Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Graduation Date
23-06-2025
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Project
['CSE3000 Research Project']
Programme
['Computer Science and Engineering']
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
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Abstract

Neural Networks have become standard solutions in many real-life relevant applications, such as healthcare. Yet, their vulnerability to backdoor attacks is a concern. These attacks modify a small portion of the data or the model to insert hidden triggered behaviors. Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) models, which integrate neural networks with symbolic reasoning, have been proposed as more robust and explainable AI models. However, their resilience against backdoor attacks has not been examined. This research investigates the robustness of Logic Tensor Networks (LTNs), representative NeSy models, against BadNet attacks, a simple and stealthy class of data poisoning backdoor attacks. Through empirical evaluations, we analyze how LTNs are affected by a bigger focus on symbolic reasoning and in different settings of an LTN model and BadNet attack, we measure the attack success rate (ASR). Our findings aim to provide a first insight into the vulnerability of NeSy systems to backdoor attacks.

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