Beyond A Fixed Seal: Adaptive Stealing Watermark in Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhang, Shuhao, Chen, Yuli, Han, Jiale, Cheng, Bo, Ma, Jiabao
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Zhang, Shuhao
Chen, Yuli
Han, Jiale
Cheng, Bo
Ma, Jiabao
author_facet Zhang, Shuhao
Chen, Yuli
Han, Jiale
Cheng, Bo
Ma, Jiabao
contents Watermarking provides a critical safeguard for large language model (LLM) services by facilitating the detection of LLM-generated text. Correspondingly, stealing watermark algorithms (SWAs) derive watermark information from watermarked texts generated by victim LLMs to craft highly targeted adversarial attacks, which compromise the reliability of watermarks. Existing SWAs rely on fixed strategies, overlooking the non-uniform distribution of stolen watermark information and the dynamic nature of real-world LLM generation processes. To address these limitations, we propose Adaptive Stealing (AS), a novel SWA featuring enhanced design flexibility through Position-Based Seal Construction and Adaptive Selection modules. AS operates by defining multiple attack perspectives derived from distinct activation states of contextually ordered tokens. During attack execution, AS dynamically selects the optimal perspective based on watermark compatibility, generation priority, and dynamic generation relevance. Our experiments demonstrate that AS significantly increases steal efficiency against target watermarks under identical experimental conditions. These findings highlight the need for more robust LLM watermarks to withstand potential attacks. We release our code to the community for future research\footnote{https://github.com/DrankXs/AdaptiveStealingWatermark}.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_10893
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Beyond A Fixed Seal: Adaptive Stealing Watermark in Large Language Models
Zhang, Shuhao
Chen, Yuli
Han, Jiale
Cheng, Bo
Ma, Jiabao
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Watermarking provides a critical safeguard for large language model (LLM) services by facilitating the detection of LLM-generated text. Correspondingly, stealing watermark algorithms (SWAs) derive watermark information from watermarked texts generated by victim LLMs to craft highly targeted adversarial attacks, which compromise the reliability of watermarks. Existing SWAs rely on fixed strategies, overlooking the non-uniform distribution of stolen watermark information and the dynamic nature of real-world LLM generation processes. To address these limitations, we propose Adaptive Stealing (AS), a novel SWA featuring enhanced design flexibility through Position-Based Seal Construction and Adaptive Selection modules. AS operates by defining multiple attack perspectives derived from distinct activation states of contextually ordered tokens. During attack execution, AS dynamically selects the optimal perspective based on watermark compatibility, generation priority, and dynamic generation relevance. Our experiments demonstrate that AS significantly increases steal efficiency against target watermarks under identical experimental conditions. These findings highlight the need for more robust LLM watermarks to withstand potential attacks. We release our code to the community for future research\footnote{https://github.com/DrankXs/AdaptiveStealingWatermark}.
title Beyond A Fixed Seal: Adaptive Stealing Watermark in Large Language Models
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.10893