GRAFT: Graphlet-Triggered Backdoor Attack on GNN-Based Hardware Security Systems

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 8 Jun 2026] GRAFT: Graphlet-Triggered Backdoor Attack on GNN-Based Hardware Security Systems Sanaz Kazemi Abharian, Sai Manoj Pudukotai Dinakarrao The globalization of the integrated circuit (IC) supply chain increases the risk of security threats, such as hardware Trojans (HTs) and the theft of intellectual property (IP). Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), among the most powerful deep learning methods for processing graph-structured data, have been widely adopted to detect such threats. However, GNNs are susceptible to backdoor attacks that can maliciously manipulate output predictions toward an adversarial target. These attacks are not only difficult to detect but also compromise the integrity of GNN-based security systems. Most prior work embeds backdoor triggers using randomly generated subgraphs or gradient-guided generative subgraphs. However, such triggers are impractical for GNN-based hardware security applications as they do not guarantee the preservation of circuit functionality. In this paper, we propose GRAFT, a graph let-triggered backdoor attack targeting GNN-based hardware security. GRAFT embeds graphlet-based triggers at either the register-transfer level (RTL) or gate level of the design while preserving the circuit 's original function. We evaluate GRAFT on the ISCAS-85 and TrustHub datasets. Our experimental results demonstrate that GRAFT can effectively evade HT detection and IP piracy detection, achieving an attack success rate (ASR) of up to 100%. Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Hardware Architecture (cs.AR) Cite as: arXiv:2606.10163 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2606.10163v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.10163 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Sanaz Kazemi Abharian [view email] [v1] Mon, 8 Jun 2026 20:47:54 UTC (349 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-06 Change to browse by: cs cs.AR References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)