Sponge / energy-latency attack
Inputs designed to maximise a model's energy use and latency
categoryAI/ML and emerging attacksseverityMediumlabnot yet measured
Example: Shumailov et al. (2021)
Classification
16 values: 5 imported, 1 derived, 10 machine-classified. What do these mean?
Exploitability
| Attack vector | AI model manipulation |
|---|---|
| Reach (CVSS) | Network |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | None |
| User interaction | None |
| Attacker skill required | Medium |
| Resources required | Low |
| Likelihood / prevalence | Low |
| Maturity | Proof of concept |
Impact & scope
| Severity | Medium |
|---|---|
| Impact | AvailabilityFinancial |
| Platform | AI System |
| Environment | AI system |
| Target asset class | ML model / agent |
| Kill-chain phase (tactic) | Impact |
Detection & response
Mitigated by 5
- AML.M0004 atlas-mitigation
- AML.M0015 atlas-mitigation
- AML.M0019 atlas-mitigation
- AML.M0035 atlas-mitigation
- AML.M0036 atlas-mitigation
Framework references
- Primary source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.03463
- atlas: AML.T0029 (primary)
- atlas: AML.T0034.001
Evidence & sources
- ev-0001 (Cyber Attack Taxonomy) — Name, definition and Example/ID taken verbatim from the 'AI/ML and emerging attacks' table, line 625 of Cyber-Attack-Taxonomy.md
- ev-0002 (Seeded-record enrichment run 2026-09-30 (crosswalk + facet classification)) — Crosswalk to atlas:AML.T0029, atlas:AML.T0034.001 as the nearest framework entries; ids verified to exist in the cached catalogues.