Merge pull request #8 from AndrewZhou924/agent/consolidate-readme

Consolidate repository into a single README
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<h1 align="center"><b>Awesome-model-inversion-attack</b></h1>
<h1 align="center"><b>Awesome Model Inversion Attacks</b></h1>
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A curated list of resources for model inversion attack (MIA).
A curated, cross-domain collection of research on **model inversion attacks (MIAs)**, defenses, evaluation, and closely related data-reconstruction problems.
Please star or watch this repository to keep tracking the latest updates! Contributions are welcome!
## NEWS
<a id="our-survey-model-inversion-attacks-a-survey-of-approaches-and-countermeasures"></a>
- **[Nov/2024]** We release a comprehensive survey of model inversion attacks. Check our paper on [Arxiv](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10023).
> [!IMPORTANT]
> ### Our survey: Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey of Approaches and Countermeasures
>
> **Zhanke Zhou, Jianing Zhu, Fengfei Yu, Xuan Li, Xiong Peng, Tongliang Liu, and Bo Han**
>
> Our survey provides a unified view of model inversion across **image, text, and graph data**, covering attack principles, threat models, defenses, datasets, evaluation metrics, practical deployment, and emerging foundation-model settings.
>
> **[Read the paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10023)** · **[Download PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10023)** · **[Jump to BibTeX](#citation)**
### **Citation**
> [!NOTE]
> We distinguish post-training model inversion from gradient inversion, training-data extraction, and other adjacent reconstruction problems. See [Scope and labels](#scope-and-labels).
If you find this repo helpful, please kindly cite our [paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10023). Thank you :)
## News
- **[Aug/2026]** We refreshed the repository with recent work on foundation models and VLMs, diffusion priors, collaborative/split inference, defenses, and evaluation. See [Recent papers (20242026)](#recent-papers-20242026).
- **[Nov/2024]** We released our survey, *Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey of Approaches and Countermeasures*. [[arXiv]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10023)
## Citation
If you find this repository helpful, please cite our [survey](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10023):
```
@article{zhou2024model,
@@ -25,62 +42,158 @@ If you find this repo helpful, please kindly cite our [paper](https://arxiv.org/
}
```
### **Outlines of this repo:**
## Navigation
- [NEWS](#news)
- [What is the model inversion attack?](#what-is-the-model-inversion-attack)
- [Related survey](#related-survey)
- [Scope and labels](#scope-and-labels)
- [Our survey](#our-survey-model-inversion-attacks-a-survey-of-approaches-and-countermeasures)
- [Recent papers (20242026)](#recent-papers-20242026)
- [Surveys and benchmarks](#surveys-and-benchmarks)
- [Computer vision domain](#computer-vision-domain)
- [Graph learning domain](#graph-learning-domain)
- [Natural language processing domain](#natural-language-processing-domain)
- [Tools](#tools)
- [Contributing](#contributing)
- [Others](#others)
- [Related repositories](#related-repositories)
- [Star History](#star-history)
## What is the model inversion attack?
## Scope and labels
A model inversion attack is a privacy attack where the attacker is able to reconstruct the original samples that were used to train the synthetic model from the generated synthetic data set. (Mostly.ai)
A model inversion attack uses information exposed by a trained model—such as labels, confidence scores, embeddings, hidden representations, model parameters, or generated responses—to reconstruct private training information or sensitive characteristics represented by the model.
The goal of model inversion attacks is to recreate training data or sensitive attributes.
(Chen et al, 2021.)
Each new entry should make the threat model explicit:
In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dataset used to train a supervised neural network. A successful model inversion attack should generate realistic and diverse samples that accurately describe each of the classes in the private dataset. (Wang et al, 2021.)
- **Access:** white-box, score-based black-box, label-only, embedding/feature interface, or generated-response interface.
- **Prior/resource:** auxiliary data, surrogate model, GAN/StyleGAN prior, diffusion prior, or no auxiliary data.
- **Target:** class representative, identity, individual input, prompt/text, graph topology, or sensitive attribute.
- **Status:** `peer-reviewed`, `accepted`, `preprint`, or `withdrawn submission`.
## Related survey
We list gradient inversion, federated-learning reconstruction, training-data extraction, and inversion for interpretability as **adjacent reconstruction** when they do not match the post-training MIA threat model.
- [arXiv 2024] Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey of Approaches and Countermeasures. [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10023)
## Surveys and benchmarks
- [Physical and Engineering Sciences 2024] Algorithms that remember: model inversion attacks and data protection law. [[paper]](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2018.0083)
- **[Our survey, arXiv 2024] [Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey of Approaches and Countermeasures](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10023).** A unified cross-domain survey of attacks, defenses, evaluation, deployment considerations, and open problems across image, text, and graph data.
- [2025, Artificial Intelligence Review] **Deep Learning Model Inversion Attacks and Defenses: A Comprehensive Survey.** [[paper]](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-025-11248-0)
- [2024, arXiv] **Privacy Leakage on DNNs: A Survey of Model Inversion Attacks and Defenses.** [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04013) [[toolbox]](https://github.com/ffhibnese/Model-Inversion-Attack-ToolBox)
- [2024, arXiv preprint] **MIBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Model Inversion Attack and Defense.** [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05159)
- [2023, IEEE CSF] **SoK: Model Inversion Attack Landscape: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Future Roadmap.** [[paper]](https://doi.org/10.1109/CSF57540.2023.00017)
- [2021, IEEE TKDE] **Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey.** [[paper]](https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2021.3065936)
- [CSF 2023] SoK: Model Inversion Attack Landscape: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Future Roadmap [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10221914)
Broader privacy, trustworthy-ML, and gradient-inversion surveys are retained in the domain lists below when useful, but are not presented as MIA-specific surveys.
- [arXiv 2022] Trustworthy Graph Neural Networks: Aspects, Methods and Trends. [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.07424.pdf)
## Recent papers (20242026)
- [arXiv 2022] A Survey of Trustworthy Graph Learning: Reliability, Explainability, and Privacy Protection. [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.10014.pdf)
This status-checked index highlights recent work that cuts across the historical image/text/graph organization below. Publication status was checked on **8 August 2026**.
- [arXiv 2022] A Comprehensive Survey on Trustworthy Graph Neural Networks: Privacy, Robustness, Fairness, and Explainability. [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2204.08570.pdf)
Status labels: **peer-reviewed**, **accepted**, **preprint**, and **withdrawn submission**.
- [arXiv 2022] Federated Learning Attacks Revisited: A Critical Discussion of Gaps, Assumptions, and Evaluation Setups [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.03363)
<details>
<summary><b>Show the 20242026 paper index</b></summary>
- [arXiv 2022] I Know What You Trained Last Summer: A Survey on Stealing Machine Learning Models and Defences [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.08451)
### Surveys, benchmarks, and evaluation
- [arXiv 2021] Survey: Leakage and Privacy at Inference Time [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.01614)
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Focus | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐ [Model Inversion Attacks: A Survey of Approaches and Countermeasures](https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10023) | 2024, arXiv, **our survey** | Cross-domain survey | Unifies image, text, and graph MIAs with attacks, defenses, evaluation, deployment considerations, and an evolving repository. |
| [Privacy Leakage on DNNs: A Survey of Model Inversion Attacks and Defenses](https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04013) | 2024, arXiv, **preprint** | Survey/toolbox | Cross-domain survey with an open-source MIA toolbox. |
| [Deep Learning Model Inversion Attacks and Defenses: A Comprehensive Survey](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-025-11248-0) | 2025, Artificial Intelligence Review 58:242, **peer-reviewed** | Survey | Reviews attacks, defenses, applications, datasets, metrics, and open problems. |
| [MIBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Model Inversion Attack and Defense](https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05159) | 2024, arXiv, **preprint** | Benchmark/toolbox | Implements 16 attacks/defenses and nine evaluation protocols; the ICLR submission was withdrawn. |
| [Revisiting Model Inversion Evaluation: From Misleading Standards to Reliable Privacy Assessment](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2026F/html/Ho_Revisiting_Model_Inversion_Evaluation_From_Misleading_Standards_to_Reliable_Privacy_CVPRF_2026_paper.html) | 2026, CVPR Findings, **peer-reviewed** | Evaluation | Identifies false positives caused by evaluation classifiers and proposes MLLM-based assessment. |
| [An Automated, Scalable Machine Learning Model Inversion Assessment Pipeline](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04214) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Practical assessment | Automates visual leakage assessment with four risk dimensions. |
- [arXiv 2021] A Review of Confidentiality Threats Against Embedded Neural Network Models [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.01401)
### Image, 3D, and diffusion-prior attacks
- [arXiv 2021] Membership Inference Attacks on Machine Learning: A Survey [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.07853)
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Access / prior | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [A Closer Look at GAN Priors: Exploiting Intermediate Features for Enhanced Model Inversion Attacks](https://www.ecva.net/papers/eccv_2024/papers_ECCV/html/4642_ECCV_2024_paper.php) | 2024, ECCV, **peer-reviewed** | White-box; GAN intermediate features | IF-GMI searches intermediate generator features under an L1-ball constraint. |
| [Prediction Exposes Your Face: Black-box Model Inversion via Prediction Alignment](https://www.ecva.net/papers/eccv_2024/papers_ECCV/html/5316_ECCV_2024_paper.php) | 2024, ECCV, **peer-reviewed** | Black-box prediction vectors; StyleGAN | P2I directly aligns prediction vectors with StyleGAN W+ to reduce queries. |
| [Pseudo-Private Data Guided Model Inversion Attacks](https://openreview.net/forum?id=pyqPUf36D2) | 2024, NeurIPS, **peer-reviewed** | White-box; public and pseudo-private images | Iteratively improves a generative prior with earlier reconstructions. |
| [Model Inversion Attacks Through Target-Specific Conditional Diffusion Models](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.11424) | 2024, arXiv, **preprint** | Target-specific conditional diffusion | Diff-MI learns a diffusion prior guided by target predictions. |
| [Single-Step Diffusion Model-Based Generative Model Inversion Attacks](https://openreview.net/forum?id=TvhEoz1nim) | 2025, ICLR submission, **withdrawn submission** | Distilled diffusion prior; classifier/CLIP | Replaces GAN priors with a single-step diffusion generator and studies CLIP leakage. |
| [From Head to Tail: Efficient Black-box Model Inversion Attack via Long-tailed Learning](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2025/html/Li_From_Head_to_Tail_Efficient_Black-box_Model_Inversion_Attack_via_CVPR_2025_paper.html) | 2025, CVPR, **peer-reviewed** | Confidence scores; surrogate and generator | SMILE combines long-tailed surrogate training with query-efficient derivative-free search. |
| [MEDUSA: Medical Data Under Shadow Attacks via Hybrid Model Inversion](https://proceedings.mlr.press/v258/azhar25a.html) | 2025, AISTATS, **peer-reviewed** | Gray-box; shadow model | Hybrid optimization and learned reconstruction for medical images. |
| [ConcreTizer: Model Inversion Attack via Occupancy Classification and Dispersion Control for 3D Point Cloud Restoration](https://openreview.net/forum?id=I4iZmsV4HM) | 2025, ICLR, **peer-reviewed** | 3D feature interface | Reconstructs voxelized point clouds using occupancy and dispersion objectives. |
| [Diffusion-Driven Universal Model Inversion Attack for Face Recognition](https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18015) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Face embeddings; fixed diffusion prior | Uses a reusable unconditional diffusion model without target-specific generator training. |
| [Model Inversion Attack Against Deep Hashing](https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12233) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Black-box deep hashing; diffusion | Reconstructs retrieval images without private training hash codes. |
- [arXiv 2021] ML-Doctor: Holistic Risk Assessment of Inference Attacks Against Machine Learning Models [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.02551)
### Foundation models and vision-language models
- [IEEE Access 2020] Privacy and Security Issues in Deep Learning: A Survey [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9294026)
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Exposed interface | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Do Vision-Language Models Leak What They Learn? Adaptive Token-Weighted Model Inversion Attacks](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2026/html/Nguyen_Do_Vision-Language_Models_Leak_What_They_Learn_Adaptive_Token-Weighted_Model_CVPR_2026_paper.html) | 2026, CVPR, **peer-reviewed** | VLM tokens and generated responses | Introduces token/sequence MIAs and SMI-AW for private visual training data. |
| [Data-Free Model-Related Attacks: Unleashing the Potential of Generative AI](https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity25/presentation/ye-attacks) | 2025, USENIX Security, **peer-reviewed** | Black-box target; generative-AI prior | Studies data-free model extraction, membership inference, and model inversion. |
| [DRAG: Data Reconstruction Attack using Guided Diffusion](https://openreview.net/forum?id=z6GEZ2ogct) | 2025, ICML, **peer-reviewed** | CLIP/DINOv2 intermediate features | Uses guided latent diffusion to reconstruct inputs from deep foundation-model features. |
- [arXiv 2020] A Survey of Privacy Attacks in Machine Learning [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.07646)
- [arXiv 2020] Rethinking Privacy Preserving Deep Learning: How to Evaluate and Thwart Privacy Attacks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.11601)
- [arXiv 2020] An Overview of Privacy in Machine Learning [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.08679)
The single-step diffusion work listed in the preceding section also evaluates privacy leakage in CLIP.
### Collaborative and split inference
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Setting | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [PATROL: Privacy-Oriented Pruning for Collaborative Inference Against Model Inversion Attacks](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/WACV2024/papers/Ding_PATROL_Privacy-Oriented_Pruning_for_Collaborative_Inference_Against_Model_Inversion_Attacks_WACV_2024_paper.pdf) | 2024, WACV, **peer-reviewed** | Collaborative inference defense | Privacy-aware pruning for resource-constrained edge deployment. |
| [A Stealthy Wrongdoer: Feature-Oriented Reconstruction Attack against Split Learning](https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04115) | 2024, arXiv, **preprint** | Passive split-learning server | FORA transfers representation preferences from public auxiliary data. |
| [Theoretical Insights in Model Inversion Robustness and Conditional Entropy Maximization for Collaborative Inference Systems](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2025/html/Xia_Theoretical_Insights_in_Model_Inversion_Robustness_and_Conditional_Entropy_Maximization_CVPR_2025_paper.html) | 2025, CVPR, **peer-reviewed** | Split-inference defense | Relates conditional entropy to reconstruction error and proposes CEM. |
| [Revisiting the Privacy Risks of Split Inference: A GAN-Based Data Reconstruction Attack via Progressive Feature Optimization](https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20613) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Split inference; StyleGAN | Progressive feature optimization improves deep-cut and OOD reconstruction. |
| [Ensembler: Protect Collaborative Inference Privacy from Model Inversion Attack via Selective Ensemble](https://doi.org/10.1109/DAC63849.2025.11132673) | 2025, DAC, **peer-reviewed** | Collaborative-inference defense | Selective ensembles confuse server-side reconstruction with low inference overhead. |
| [What Your Features Reveal: Data-Efficient Black-Box Feature Inversion Attack for Split DNNs](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2026/papers/Ren_What_Your_Features_Reveal_Data-Efficient_Black-Box_Feature_Inversion_Attack_for_CVPR_2026_paper.pdf) | 2026, CVPR, **peer-reviewed** | Black-box feature interface | FIA-Flow learns from few image-feature pairs and performs one-step reconstruction. |
| [Prompt Inversion Attack against Collaborative Inference of Large Language Models](https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.09022) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | LLM inter-layer activations | Reconstructs prompts transmitted in collaborative LLM inference. |
### Defenses
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Defense axis | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [On the Vulnerability of Skip Connections to Model Inversion Attacks](https://www.ecva.net/papers/eccv_2024/papers_ECCV/papers/10529.pdf) | 2024, ECCV, **peer-reviewed** | Architecture | Shows skip connections amplify leakage and proposes MI-resilient designs. |
| [Improving Robustness to Model Inversion Attacks via Sparse Coding Architectures](https://www.ecva.net/papers/eccv_2024/papers_ECCV/html/10339_ECCV_2024_paper.php) | 2024, ECCV, **peer-reviewed** | Architecture | Uses sparse-coding layers to limit irrelevant private information. |
| [Trap-MID: Trapdoor-based Defense against Model Inversion Attacks](https://openreview.net/forum?id=GNhrGRCerd) | 2024, NeurIPS, **peer-reviewed** | Misdirection/trapdoor | Makes inversion recover a trapdoor trigger instead of private samples. |
| [Defending against Model Inversion Attacks via Random Erasing](https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.01062) | 2024, arXiv, **preprint** | Data-centric training | Random erasing reduces recoverable visual detail while retaining task utility. |
| [Stealthy Shield Defense: A Conditional Mutual Information-Based Approach against Black-Box Model Inversion Attacks](https://openreview.net/forum?id=p0DjhjPXl3) | 2025, ICLR, **peer-reviewed** | Output post-processing | Reduces conditional mutual information without retraining the target model. |
| [Rank Matters: Understanding and Defending Model Inversion Attacks via Low-Rank Feature Filtering](https://doi.org/10.1145/3770854.3780328) | 2026, KDD, **peer-reviewed** | Low-rank feature filtering | Final version of the work previously titled CALoR; combines confidence adaptation and low-rank filtering. |
| [Model Inversion Attacks Meet Cryptographic Fuzzy Extractors](https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25687) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Cryptographic biometric defense | Studies inversion against fuzzy extractors and proposes L2FE-Hash. |
### Text and embedding inversion
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Interface | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [An Inversion Attack Against Obfuscated Embedding Matrix in Language Model Inference](https://aclanthology.org/2024.emnlp-main.126/) | 2024, EMNLP, **peer-reviewed** | Obfuscated embedding matrix | Recovers text from glide-reflection-obfuscated embeddings. |
| [ALGEN: Few-shot Inversion Attacks on Textual Embeddings via Cross-Model Alignment and Generation](https://aclanthology.org/2025.acl-long.1185/) | 2025, ACL, **peer-reviewed** | Few-shot black-box embeddings | Cross-model alignment enables inversion with few paired samples. |
| [ObfusLM: Privacy-preserving Language Model Service against Embedding Inversion Attacks](https://aclanthology.org/2025.acl-long.58/) | 2025, ACL, **peer-reviewed** | Embedding-service defense | Obfuscates embeddings for both classification and generation services. |
| [PrivacyRestore: Privacy-Preserving Inference in Large Language Models via Privacy Removal and Restoration](https://aclanthology.org/2025.acl-long.532/) | 2025, ACL, **peer-reviewed** | LLM inference defense | Removes private spans client-side and restores task information through privacy-aware vectors. |
| [Towards Privacy-Preserving Large Language Model: Text-free Inference Through Alignment and Adaptation](https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.1191/) | 2026, ACL, **peer-reviewed** | Noisy pooled embeddings | PPFT protects inference and private-domain fine-tuning without sending raw text. |
### Graph reconstruction
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Interface | Main contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| [ReconXF: Graph Reconstruction Attack via Public Feature Explanations on Privatized Node Features and Labels](https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02134) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Feature explanations and privatized attributes | Denoises auxiliary node information and reconstructs graph topology. |
| [GraphToxin: Reconstructing Full Unlearned Graphs from Graph Unlearning](https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10936) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Graph-unlearning residue | Reconstructs deleted nodes, edges, and neighborhoods; adjacent to classical MIA. |
### Adjacent reconstruction problems
These papers are useful context but should not be presented as classical post-training MIAs without qualification.
| Paper | Year / venue / status | Why adjacent |
|---|---|---|
| [GRAIN: Exact Graph Reconstruction from Gradients](https://proceedings.iclr.cc/paper_files/paper/2025/hash/b88ccd2117cf61258e868a84145c94ca-Abstract-Conference.html) | 2025, ICLR, **peer-reviewed** | Reconstructs graph structure and features from shared training gradients. |
| [TINA: Text-Free Inversion Attack for Unlearned Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2026/html/Xiang_TINA_Text-Free_Inversion_Attack_for_Unlearned_Text-to-Image_Diffusion_Models_CVPR_2026_paper.html) | 2026, CVPR, **peer-reviewed** | Attacks concept erasure rather than private classifier training data. |
| [MIMIC: Multimodal Inversion for Model Interpretation and Conceptualization](https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07833) | 2025, arXiv, **preprint** | Representation inversion for interpretation rather than a privacy attack. |
| [Implicit Inversion Turns CLIP into a Decoder](https://openreview.net/forum?id=hvukI2ws5O) | 2025, OpenReview | Representation decoding/generation rather than private-data reconstruction. |
### Maintenance notes
- Merge preprint and final versions into one lineage. In particular, arXiv:2410.05814 (CALoR) became the KDD 2026 paper *Rank Matters*.
- Do not label MIBench as an ICLR publication; it remains an arXiv preprint and its ICLR submission was withdrawn.
- Do not label *Single-Step Diffusion Model-Based Generative Model Inversion Attacks* as an accepted ICLR 2025 paper.
- Distinguish diffusion models used as attack priors from diffusion models that are themselves the attack target.
</details>
## Computer vision domain
<details>
<summary><b>Show the complete computer-vision list</b></summary>
The entries below preserve the historical collection. For a status-checked cross-cutting view of recent work, use the [20242026 index](#recent-papers-20242026).
- [NDSS 2025] CENSOR: Defense Against Gradient Inversion via Orthogonal Subspace Bayesian Sampling [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.15718) [[code]](https://github.com/KaiyuanZh/censor) [[project]](https://censor-gradient.github.io/)
- [ICML 2024] (white-box) Sparse Model Inversion: Efficient Inversion of Vision Transformers for Data-Free Applications [[paper]](https://openreview.net/pdf?id=T0lFfO8HaK) [[code]](https://github.com/Egg-Hu/SMI)
@@ -97,7 +210,7 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [AAAI 2023] (white-box) Pseudo Label-Guided Model Inversion Attack via Conditional Generative Adversarial Network [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.09814.pdf) [[code]](https://github.com/lethesec/plg-mi-attack)
- [TDSC 2023] (black-box) C2FMI: Coarse-to-Fine Black-box Model Inversion Attack [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10148574)
- [TDSC 2023] (black-box) C2FMI: Coarse-to-Fine Black-box Model Inversion Attack [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10148574) [[code]](https://github.com/MiLabHITSZ/2022YeC2FMI)
- [TDSC 2023] (black-box) Boosting Model Inversion Attacks with Adversarial Examples [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10148576)
@@ -107,9 +220,7 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [AAAI 2023] (black-box (defense)) Purifier: Defending Data Inference Attacks via Transforming Confidence Scores [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.03915.pdf)
- [CCS 2023] (black-box) Unstoppable Attack: Label-Only Model Inversion via Conditional Diffusion Model [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.08424.pdf)
- [TDSC 2023] C2FMI: Corse-to-Fine Black-Box Model Inversion Attack [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10148574) [[code]](https://github.com/MiLabHITSZ/2022YeC2FMI)
- [IEEE TIFS 2024] (label-only black-box) Unstoppable Attack: Label-Only Model Inversion via Conditional Diffusion Model [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.08424)
- [ICML 2022] Plug-In Inversion: Model-Agnostic Inversion for Vision with Data Augmentations [[paper]](https://proceedings.mlr.press/v162/ghiasi22a/ghiasi22a.pdf)
@@ -141,8 +252,6 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [NeurIPS 2022] (white-box) Reconstructing Training Data from Trained Neural Networks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.07758)
- [KDD 2022] Bilateral Dependency Optimization: Defending Against Model-inversion Attacks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.05483)
- [NeurIPS 2021] (white-box) Variational Model Inversion Attacks [[paper]](https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/file/50a074e6a8da4662ae0a29edde722179-Paper.pdf) [[code]](https://github.com/wangkua1/vmi)
- [ICCV 2021] (white-box) Exploiting Explanations for Model Inversion Attacks [[paper]](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/ICCV2021/papers/Zhao_Exploiting_Explanations_for_Model_Inversion_Attacks_ICCV_2021_paper.pdf)
@@ -205,7 +314,7 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [GLSVLSI 2019] (black-box (defense)) MLPrivacyGuard: Defeating Confidence Information based Model Inversion Attacks on Machine Learning Systems [[paper]](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tiago-Alves-13/publication/333136362_MLPrivacyGuard_Defeating_Confidence_Information_based_Model_Inversion_Attacks_on_Machine_Learning_Systems/links/5cddb94d92851c4eaba682d7/MLPrivacyGuard-Defeating-Confidence-Information-based-Model-Inversion-Attacks-on-Machine-Learning-Systems.pdf)
- [CVPR 2019] A style-based generator architecture for generative adversarial networks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.10023)
- [CVPR 2019] A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04948)
- [arXiv 2019] (white-box) An Attack-Based Evaluation Method for Differentially Private Learning Against Model Inversion Attack [[paper]](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8822435)
@@ -233,10 +342,15 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [USENIX Security 2014] (black & white-box) Privacy in Pharmacogenetics: An End-to-End Case Study of Personalized Warfarin Dosing [[paper]](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity14/sec14-paper-fredrikson-privacy.pdf)
- [USENIX Security 2014] Privacy in Pharmacogenetics: An End-to-End Case Study of Personalized Warfarin Dosing [[paper]](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity14/sec14-paper-fredrikson-privacy.pdf)
</details>
## Graph learning domain
<details>
<summary><b>Show the complete graph-learning list</b></summary>
The entries below include both post-training graph inversion and adjacent graph-reconstruction settings. See each paper's threat model before comparing results.
- [SecureComm 2023] (white-box) Model Inversion Attacks on Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Graph Neural Networks [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.09800)
- [ICML 2023] (white-box) On Strengthening and Defending Graph Reconstruction Attack with Markov Chain Approximation [[paper]](https://openreview.net/pdf?id=Vcl3qckVyh) [[code]](https://github.com/tmlr-group/MC-GRA)
@@ -283,9 +397,16 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [USENIX Security 2020] Stealing Links from Graph Neural Networks [[paper]](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec21-he-xinlei.pdf) [[code]](https://github.com/xinleihe/link_stealing_attack)
</details>
## Natural language processing domain
<details>
<summary><b>Show the complete NLP list</b></summary>
This historical list includes embedding inversion, prompt inversion, memorization, and adjacent training-data extraction. The [20242026 index](#recent-papers-20242026) separates these interfaces and statuses.
- [NeurIPS 2025] (black-box) Better Language Model Inversion by Compactly Representing Next-Token Distributions [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17090) [[code]](https://github.com/dill-lab/PILS)
- [ACL 2024] (black-box) Text Embedding Inversion Security for Multilingual Language Models [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.12192) [[code]](https://github.com/siebeniris/multivec2text)
@@ -340,6 +461,8 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [arXiv 2015] Censoring Representations with an Adversary [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.05897)
</details>
## Tools
- [AIJack](https://github.com/Koukyosyumei/AIJack): Implementation of algorithms for AI security.
@@ -369,10 +492,37 @@ In model inversion attacks, a malicious user attempts to recover the private dat
- [Blog 2020] Attacks against Machine Learning Privacy (Part 1): Model Inversion Attacks with the IBM-ART Framework [[blog]](https://franziska-boenisch.de/posts/2020/12/model-inversion/)
- [Slides 2020] ML and DP [[slides]](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~toni/Courses/Fairness/Lectures/ML-and-DP-v2.pdf)
### Related representation-space attacks (not model inversion)
These papers affect interfaces also studied by model inversion research, but do not reconstruct private training information and are therefore listed separately.
- [arXiv 2025] (black- and white-box) **Jailbreaking LLMs' Safeguard with Universal Magic Words for Text Embedding Models.** Exploits embedding-distribution bias to find universal suffixes that manipulate cosine similarity and bypass embedding-based safeguards. [[paper]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18280)
## Contributing
Contributions are welcome through pull requests or issues. Please use official publisher, proceedings, OpenReview, ACL Anthology, PMLR, CVF/ECVA, USENIX, DOI, or arXiv links whenever possible.
Suggested entry format:
```text
Year | Paper | Domain | Target/observable | Access | Auxiliary data/prior |
Attack or defense | Venue/status | Paper URL | Code URL (optional)
```
Before submitting an entry:
1. Search this README for duplicate titles and earlier versions.
2. Merge a preprint and its final version into one lineage.
3. Verify the authors, exact title, venue, year, pages, DOI, URL, and current publication status.
4. State the exposed interface and recovered target instead of using only “white-box” or “black-box”.
5. Label gradient inversion, training-data extraction, interpretability-oriented inversion, and unlearning/concept-erasure inversion as **adjacent reconstruction** unless the paper studies the classical MIA threat model.
6. Add at most one original sentence describing the contribution; do not copy the abstract.
## Related repositories
- awesome-ml-privacy-attacks [[repo]](https://github.com/stratosphereips/awesome-ml-privacy-attacks#reconstruction)
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