arXiv Computer Vision

DEFUSE: Generalizable Backdoor Defense for Self-Supervised Encoders with Generative Priors

DEFUSE is a backdoor detection framework for self‑supervised encoders that uses a conditional diffusion generative model to estimate representation‑conditioned image likelihoods. By fine‑tuning a pretrained diffusion model, DEFUSE performs semantic reconstruction in a reference encoder’s representation space, enabling it to detect backdoors without needing uninfected data or precomputed pseudo‑labels. Experiments show that DEFUSE outperforms existing detectors on both visual SSL and vision‑language encoders, reducing reliance on prior knowledge of the victim model or attack strategy.

arXiv AI
Sep 10

Discovering Natural Transformation Vulnerabilities in Black-Box Vision Models

The paper introduces Adversarial Scenario Attack (ASA), a query‑based black‑box method that discovers natural transformation vulnerabilities in vision models by exploring background, weather, and material/color edits via a multimodal language model and a text‑guided generative editor. ASA outperforms previous query‑based generative attacks on ImageNet classifiers, achieving higher success rates with fewer queries while maintaining perceptual quality. The approach also shows image‑level and prompt‑level transferability, indicating reusable vulnerabilities across models and images.

By Dongsu Song, DaeYun GO, Jay Hoon Jung
arXiv AI
Jun 11

Diffusion-based Cumulative Adversarial Purification for Vision Language Models

arXiv:2506. 03933v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Vision Language Models (VLMs) have shown remarkable capabilities in multimodal understanding, yet their susceptibility to adversarial perturbations poses a significant threat to their reliability in real-world applications.

By Jia Fu, Yongtao Wu, Yihang Chen, Kunyu Peng, Xiao Zhang, Volkan Cevher, Sepideh Pashami, Anders Holst
arXiv Computer Vision
3d ago

FusionAudit: Pathway-Conditioned Robustness Auditing for Native Multimodal Models

FusionAudit introduces PaRMA, a pathway-conditioned robustness auditing framework for native multimodal vision‑language models. It evaluates two image‑level interventions—pixel perturbation and rendered‑text insertion—to expose architecture‑specific blind spots. The study applies diagnostic‑motivated attacks (MANTIS and Nat‑Evid) to 18 open‑weight VLMs, revealing that legacy single‑attack rankings are unstable and that PaRMA uncovers higher residual risk than standard benchmarks.

By Jiaming Zhang, Zherui Li, Siqi Guo, Junhao Dong, Kun Wang, Wei Yang Bryan Lim
arXiv AI
3d ago

MIRAGE: Stealthy Visual Prompt Injection for Vulnerability Detection in Web Agents

MIRAGE is a visual indirect prompt injection framework that targets multimodal large language model (MLLM)-based web agents. It operates under realistic constraints where an attacker controls only a semantically legitimate, spatially confined region such as an ad slot or widget. Using diffusion models and a robust optimization technique, MIRAGE generates perceptually benign adversarial images confined to the attacker’s boundaries, enabling next‑action hijacking while remaining stealthy.

By Xuelong Dai, Jianyu Ma, Boyang Ma, Biwei Yan, Yijun Yang, Yue Zhang