MirrorDrift demonstrates a successful SLAM-targeted attack on production-grade 'secure' LiDARs using simple actuated mirrors rather than complex signal injection.
arXiv · March 13, 2026 · 2603.11364
Why it matters
It challenges the assumption that modern LiDAR defense mechanisms (like timing obfuscation) are sufficient to ensure geometric consistency. It reveals a fundamental physical vulnerability in scan-matching algorithms that practitioners in autonomous driving must address.
From the abstract
LiDAR SLAM provides high-accuracy localization but is fragile to point-cloud corruption because scan matching assumes geometric consistency. Prior physical attacks on LiDAR SLAM largely rely on LiDAR spoofing via external signal injection, which requires sensor-specific timing knowledge and is increasingly mitigated by modern defense mechanisms such as timing obfuscation and injection rejection. In this work, we show that specular reflection offers an injection-free alternative and demonstrate a