Real-world impact of AttrackZone on MOT-based systems

Determine the real-world impact of AttrackZone, an online and physical tracker-hijacking attack against single-object tracking algorithms based on Siamese Region Proposal Networks, on surveillance systems and autonomous vehicles that rely on multi-object tracking (MOT) algorithms.

Background

AttrackZone is an online, physical attack that uses projected adversarial patterns to manipulate the heatmap generation process in Siamese tracking networks, effectively hijacking single-object trackers. While demonstrated against specific single-object tracking algorithms in controlled environments, many real-world systems—such as surveillance platforms and autonomous vehicles—primarily employ multi-object tracking pipelines.

The paper highlights a gap in understanding how such SOT-focused attacks translate to or affect MOT-based applications, where the association of multiple tracked entities and their IDs is critical. Evaluating the practical consequences of AttrackZone in MOT-centric systems remains an explicitly stated open question.

References

Although being an online and robust attack against OT, AttrackZone only applies to specific SOT algorithms capable of tracking one target object, and its real-world impact on surveillance systems and autonomous vehicles that rely on MOT algorithms remains open.

— Physical ID-Transfer Attacks against Multi-Object Tracking via Adversarial Trajectory  (2512.01934 - Wang et al., 1 Dec 2025) in Section 2.2 (Existing Attacks)