Really Unlearned? Verifying Machine Unlearning via Influential Sample Pairs

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Heng, Zhu, Tianqing, Zhang, Lefeng, Zhou, Wanlei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Xu, Heng
Zhu, Tianqing
Zhang, Lefeng
Zhou, Wanlei
author_facet Xu, Heng
Zhu, Tianqing
Zhang, Lefeng
Zhou, Wanlei
contents Machine unlearning enables pre-trained models to eliminate the effects of partial training samples. Previous research has mainly focused on proposing efficient unlearning strategies. However, the verification of machine unlearning, or in other words, how to guarantee that a sample has been successfully unlearned, has been overlooked for a long time. Existing verification schemes typically rely on machine learning attack techniques, such as backdoor or membership inference attacks. As these techniques are not formally designed for verification, they are easily bypassed when an untrustworthy MLaaS undergoes rapid fine-tuning to merely meet the verification conditions, rather than executing real unlearning. In this paper, we propose a formal verification scheme, IndirectVerify, to determine whether unlearning requests have been successfully executed. We design influential sample pairs: one referred to as trigger samples and the other as reaction samples. Users send unlearning requests regarding trigger samples and use reaction samples to verify if the unlearning operation has been successfully carried out. We propose a perturbation-based scheme to generate those influential sample pairs. The objective is to perturb only a small fraction of trigger samples, leading to the reclassification of reaction samples. This indirect influence will be used for our verification purposes. In contrast to existing schemes that employ the same samples for all processes, our scheme, IndirectVerify, provides enhanced robustness, making it less susceptible to bypassing processes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_10953
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Really Unlearned? Verifying Machine Unlearning via Influential Sample Pairs
Xu, Heng
Zhu, Tianqing
Zhang, Lefeng
Zhou, Wanlei
Cryptography and Security
Machine unlearning enables pre-trained models to eliminate the effects of partial training samples. Previous research has mainly focused on proposing efficient unlearning strategies. However, the verification of machine unlearning, or in other words, how to guarantee that a sample has been successfully unlearned, has been overlooked for a long time. Existing verification schemes typically rely on machine learning attack techniques, such as backdoor or membership inference attacks. As these techniques are not formally designed for verification, they are easily bypassed when an untrustworthy MLaaS undergoes rapid fine-tuning to merely meet the verification conditions, rather than executing real unlearning. In this paper, we propose a formal verification scheme, IndirectVerify, to determine whether unlearning requests have been successfully executed. We design influential sample pairs: one referred to as trigger samples and the other as reaction samples. Users send unlearning requests regarding trigger samples and use reaction samples to verify if the unlearning operation has been successfully carried out. We propose a perturbation-based scheme to generate those influential sample pairs. The objective is to perturb only a small fraction of trigger samples, leading to the reclassification of reaction samples. This indirect influence will be used for our verification purposes. In contrast to existing schemes that employ the same samples for all processes, our scheme, IndirectVerify, provides enhanced robustness, making it less susceptible to bypassing processes.
title Really Unlearned? Verifying Machine Unlearning via Influential Sample Pairs
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.10953