Paper 2026/1143 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2026/1143 ↗

Collision Resistance of Single-Layer Neural Nets

Abstract

We initiate the study of the algorithmic complexity of finding collisions in single-layer binary neural networks. Given a random matrix $\mathbf{A} \in \mathbb{R}^{m\times n}$, an input $\mathbf{x} \in \{-1,1\}^n$ is mapped to a binary output vector $\varphi(\mathbf{A}\mathbf{x})\in \{-1,1\}^m$, where $\varphi$ is an activation function with constant behavior on $[\kappa, \infty)$ for some threshold $\kappa \geq 0$. We identify the threshold scale $\kappa=\Theta(1/\sqrt{\alpha})$, where $\alpha=m/n$, as separating two complementary phenomena. When $\kappa \ll 1/\sqrt{\alpha}$, we give a simple online algorithm that efficiently produces extensive collisions. When $\kappa \gg 1/\sqrt{\alpha}$, for a natural randomized non-periodic activation and suitable oscillation complexity, we prove that the extensive-collision space exhibits an overlap gap property (OGP), yielding an exponential lower bound against online algorithms. Ours is the first work to use the overlap gap property as a rigorous criterion for collision resistance. The key difference between collision finding and average-case search is that collision finding has a new 'worst-case' aspect: the collision finder has full control over the choice of colliding pairs. Our lower bound is proved in the online model; extending such guarantees to broader classes of algorithms, including spectral, algebraic, lattice-based, or quantum methods, remains an open direction.