SWA-LDM: Toward Stealthy Watermarks for Latent Diffusion Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Zhonghao, Lyu, Linye, Chang, Xuanhang, He, Daojing, LI, YU
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yang, Zhonghao
Lyu, Linye
Chang, Xuanhang
He, Daojing
LI, YU
author_facet Yang, Zhonghao
Lyu, Linye
Chang, Xuanhang
He, Daojing
LI, YU
contents Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs) have established themselves as powerful tools in the rapidly evolving field of image generation, capable of producing highly realistic images. However, their widespread adoption raises critical concerns about copyright infringement and the misuse of generated content. Watermarking techniques have emerged as a promising solution, enabling copyright identification and misuse tracing through imperceptible markers embedded in generated images. Among these, latent-based watermarking techniques are particularly promising, as they embed watermarks directly into the latent noise without altering the underlying LDM architecture. In this work, we demonstrate that such latent-based watermarks are practically vulnerable to detection and compromise through systematic analysis of output images' statistical patterns for the first time. To counter this, we propose SWA-LDM (Stealthy Watermark for LDM), a lightweight framework that enhances stealth by dynamically randomizing the embedded watermarks using the Gaussian-distributed latent noise inherent to diffusion models. By embedding unique, pattern-free signatures per image, SWA-LDM eliminates detectable artifacts while preserving image quality and extraction robustness. Experiments demonstrate an average of 20% improvement in stealth over state-of-the-art methods, enabling secure deployment of watermarked generative AI in real-world applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_10495
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SWA-LDM: Toward Stealthy Watermarks for Latent Diffusion Models
Yang, Zhonghao
Lyu, Linye
Chang, Xuanhang
He, Daojing
LI, YU
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs) have established themselves as powerful tools in the rapidly evolving field of image generation, capable of producing highly realistic images. However, their widespread adoption raises critical concerns about copyright infringement and the misuse of generated content. Watermarking techniques have emerged as a promising solution, enabling copyright identification and misuse tracing through imperceptible markers embedded in generated images. Among these, latent-based watermarking techniques are particularly promising, as they embed watermarks directly into the latent noise without altering the underlying LDM architecture. In this work, we demonstrate that such latent-based watermarks are practically vulnerable to detection and compromise through systematic analysis of output images' statistical patterns for the first time. To counter this, we propose SWA-LDM (Stealthy Watermark for LDM), a lightweight framework that enhances stealth by dynamically randomizing the embedded watermarks using the Gaussian-distributed latent noise inherent to diffusion models. By embedding unique, pattern-free signatures per image, SWA-LDM eliminates detectable artifacts while preserving image quality and extraction robustness. Experiments demonstrate an average of 20% improvement in stealth over state-of-the-art methods, enabling secure deployment of watermarked generative AI in real-world applications.
title SWA-LDM: Toward Stealthy Watermarks for Latent Diffusion Models
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.10495