SoK: Systematic analysis of adversarial threats against deep learning approaches for autonomous anomaly detection systems in SDN-IoT networks

Abstract

Integrating Software Defined Networking (SDN) and the Internet of Things (IoT) enhances network control and flexibility. Deep Learning (DL)-based Autonomous Anomaly Detection (AAD) systems improve security by enabling real-time threat detection in SDN-IoT networks. However, these systems remain vulnerable to adversarial attacks that manipulate input data or exploit model weaknesses, significantly degrading detection accuracy. Existing research lacks a systematic analysis of adversarial vulnerabilities specific to DL-based AAD systems in SDN-IoT environments. This Systematisation of Knowledge (SoK) study introduces a structured adversarial threat model and a comprehensive taxonomy of attacks, categorising them into data-level, model-level, and hybrid threats. Unlike previous studies, we systematically evaluate white-box, black-box, and grey-box attack strategies across popular benchmark datasets (CICIDS2017, InSDN, and CICIoT2023). Our findings reveal that adversarial attacks can reduce detection accuracy by up to 48.4%, with Membership Inference causing the most significant drop. Carlini & Wagner and DeepFool achieve high evasion success rates. However, adversarial training enhances robustness, and its high computational overhead limits the real-time deployment of SDN-IoT applications. We propose adaptive countermeasures, including real-time adversarial mitigation, enhanced retraining mechanisms, and explainable AI-driven security frameworks. By integrating structured threat models, this study offers a more comprehensive approach to attack categorisation, impact assessment, and defence evaluation than previous research. Our work highlights critical vulnerabilities in existing DL-based AAD models and provides practical recommendations for improving resilience, interpretability, and computational efficiency. This study serves as a foundational reference for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance DL-based AAD security in SDN-IoT networks, offering a systematic adversarial threat model and conceptual defence evaluation based on prior empirical studies.