{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T17:08:36Z","timestamp":1767978516032,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]],"date-time":"2025-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1737331200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["GetMobile: Mobile Comp. and Comm."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Transcending the capabilities of traditional architectures, metasurfaces offer nearlimitless control over the fundamental electromagnetic properties of wireless signals, presenting new opportunities for wireless communication. However, they also bring forth unprecedented security challenges, particularly for millimeter-wave and sub-THz wireless backhaul links employed for many critical functions, such as financial trading on Wall Street. In this article, we expose a new category of aerial ''MetaSurface-in-the-Middle'' attacks, wherein an adversary armed with an on-drone metasurface, MetaFly, can intercept wireless backhaul links with an almost imperceptible trace. Strikingly, such adversarial metasurfaces can be fabricated in minutes using standard office items like a foil sheet and a laminator. The attack is implemented and experimentally evaluated in both a large indoor atrium and outdoor rooftops in a large metropolitan area, demonstrating the adversary's ability to establish a secondary diffraction beam for eavesdropping while maintaining minimal impact on legitimate communication.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3714983.3714985","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,21]],"date-time":"2025-01-21T23:19:02Z","timestamp":1737501542000},"page":"5-11","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["MetaFly: Aerial \"MetaSurface-in- The-Middle\" Attacks on Wireless Backhaul Links"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"28","author":[{"given":"Zhambyl","family":"Shaikhanov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fahid","family":"Hassan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rice University, Houston, TX, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sherif","family":"Badran","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hichem","family":"Guerboukha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Josep","family":"Miquel Jornet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daniel M.","family":"Mittleman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Brown University, Providence, RI, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Edward","family":"Knightly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rice University, Houston, TX, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","unstructured":"Anova Financial Networks. Low latency financial connectivity. https:\/\/anovanetworks.com\/"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.2014.6963798"},{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_1_3_1","first-page":"164","article-title":"Multi-kilometre and multi-gigabit-per-second sub-terahertz communications for wireless backhaul applications","volume":"6","author":"Sen Priyangshu","year":"2023","unstructured":"Priyangshu Sen, Jose V. Siles, Ngwe Thawdar, and Josep M. Jornet. 2023. Multi-kilometre and multi-gigabit-per-second sub-terahertz communications for wireless backhaul applications. Nature Electronics, 6(2):164--175.","journal-title":"Nature Electronics"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_4_1","volume-title":"IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC), 4862--4867","author":"George","unstructured":"George R. MacCartney and Theodore S. Rappaport. 2014. 73 GHz millimeter wave propagation measurements for outdoor urban mobile and back-haul communications in New York City. 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Universal licensing system. https:\/\/wireless2.fcc. gov\/UlsApp\/UlsSearch\/searchAdvanced.jsp"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1021\/nl300204s"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/adma.201204850"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.422991"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_14_1","volume-title":"IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), 1705--1721","author":"Staat Paul","year":"2022","unstructured":"Paul Staat, Simon Mulzer, Stefan Roth, Veelasha Moonsamy, Markus Heinrichs, Rainer Kronberger, Aydin Sezgin, and Christof Paar. 2022. IR- Shield: A countermeasure against adversarial physical-layer wireless sensing. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), 1705--1721."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_15_1","volume-title":"20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI), 1647--1665","author":"Cho Kun Woo","year":"2023","unstructured":"Kun Woo Cho, Mohammad H. Mazaheri, Jeremy Gummeson, Omid Abari, and Kyle Jamieson. 2023. mmWall: A steerable, transflective metamaterial surface for NextG mmWave networks. 20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI), 1647--1665."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_16_1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 6th ACM Workshop on Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Networks and Sensing Systems (ACM mmNets), 3--18","author":"Sen Priyangshu","unstructured":"Priyangshu Sen, Jacob Hall, Michele Polese, Vitaly Petrov, Duschia Bodet, Francesco Restuccia, Tommaso Melodia, and Josep M. Jornet. 2022. Terahertz communications can work in rain and snow: Impact of adverse weather conditions on channels at 140 GHz. Proceedings of the 6th ACM Workshop on Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Networks and Sensing Systems (ACM mmNets), 3--18."}],"container-title":["GetMobile: Mobile Computing and Communications"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3714983.3714985","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3714983.3714985","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,19]],"date-time":"2025-06-19T01:17:57Z","timestamp":1750295877000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3714983.3714985"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]]},"references-count":16,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3714983.3714985"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3714983.3714985","relation":{},"ISSN":["2375-0529","2375-0537"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2375-0529","type":"print"},{"value":"2375-0537","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,20]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2025-01-21","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}