ZKPROV: A Zero-Knowledge Approach to Dataset Provenance for Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Namazi, Mina, Nemecek, Alexander, Ayday, Erman
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Namazi, Mina
Nemecek, Alexander
Ayday, Erman
author_facet Namazi, Mina
Nemecek, Alexander
Ayday, Erman
contents As large language models (LLMs) are used in sensitive fields, accurately verifying their computational provenance without disclosing their training datasets poses a significant challenge, particularly in regulated sectors such as healthcare, which have strict requirements for dataset use. Traditional approaches either incur substantial computational cost to fully verify the entire training process or leak unauthorized information to the verifier. Therefore, we introduce ZKPROV, a novel cryptographic framework allowing users to verify that the LLM's responses to their prompts are trained on datasets certified by the authorities that own them. Additionally, it ensures that the dataset's content is relevant to the users' queries without revealing sensitive information about the datasets or the model parameters. ZKPROV offers a unique balance between privacy and efficiency by binding training datasets, model parameters, and responses, while also attaching zero-knowledge proofs to the responses generated by the LLM to validate these claims. Our experimental results demonstrate sublinear scaling for generating and verifying these proofs, with end-to-end overhead under 3.3 seconds for models up to 8B parameters, presenting a practical solution for real-world applications. We also provide formal security guarantees, proving that our approach preserves dataset confidentiality while ensuring trustworthy dataset provenance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_20915
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ZKPROV: A Zero-Knowledge Approach to Dataset Provenance for Large Language Models
Namazi, Mina
Nemecek, Alexander
Ayday, Erman
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
As large language models (LLMs) are used in sensitive fields, accurately verifying their computational provenance without disclosing their training datasets poses a significant challenge, particularly in regulated sectors such as healthcare, which have strict requirements for dataset use. Traditional approaches either incur substantial computational cost to fully verify the entire training process or leak unauthorized information to the verifier. Therefore, we introduce ZKPROV, a novel cryptographic framework allowing users to verify that the LLM's responses to their prompts are trained on datasets certified by the authorities that own them. Additionally, it ensures that the dataset's content is relevant to the users' queries without revealing sensitive information about the datasets or the model parameters. ZKPROV offers a unique balance between privacy and efficiency by binding training datasets, model parameters, and responses, while also attaching zero-knowledge proofs to the responses generated by the LLM to validate these claims. Our experimental results demonstrate sublinear scaling for generating and verifying these proofs, with end-to-end overhead under 3.3 seconds for models up to 8B parameters, presenting a practical solution for real-world applications. We also provide formal security guarantees, proving that our approach preserves dataset confidentiality while ensuring trustworthy dataset provenance.
title ZKPROV: A Zero-Knowledge Approach to Dataset Provenance for Large Language Models
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20915