mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Generating Master Faces for Dictionary Attacks with a Network-Assisted Latent Space Evolution

arXiv 2108.01077 ↗First posted 1 Aug 2021cs.CR cs.CV cs.LGcited by 10

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

A master face is a face image that passes face-based identity-authentication for a large portion of the population. These faces can be used to impersonate, with a high probability of success, any user, without having access to any user-information. We optimize these faces, by using an evolutionary algorithm in the latent embedding space of the StyleGAN face generator. Multiple evolutionary strategies are compared, and we propose a novel approach that employs a neural network in order to direct the search in the direction of promising samples, without adding fitness evaluations. The results we present demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a high coverage of the LFW identities (over 40%) with less than 10 master faces, for three leading deep face recognition systems.

Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 19 of its 44 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Aug 2021.

Builds on

19 of 44 references.

References · 19

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 51,809
  2. 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
  3. 2015Batch Normalization: Accelerating Deep Network Training by Reducing Internal Covariate Shiftcited by 6,979
  4. 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,986
  5. 2019Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGANcited by 3,580
  6. 2015FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clusteringcited by 2,833
  7. 2015Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 2,048
  8. 2017Arbitrary Style Transfer in Real-time with Adaptive Instance Normalizationcited by 1,998
  9. 2016Inception-v4, Inception-ResNet and the Impact of Residual Connections on Learningcited by 1,509
  10. 2015Fast and Accurate Deep Network Learning by Exponential Linear Units (ELUs)cited by 1,061
  11. 2016Joint Face Detection and Alignment using Multi-task Cascaded Convolutional Networkscited by 895
  12. 2017SphereFace: Deep Hypersphere Embedding for Face Recognitioncited by 733
7 more
  1. 2014Learning Face Representation from Scratchcited by 451
  2. 2018DeepFakes: a New Threat to Face Recognition? Assessment and Detectioncited by 208
  3. 2017Deep Metric Learning with Angular Losscited by 107
  4. 2020Versatile Black-Box Optimizationcited by 22
  5. 2020A Survey On Anti-Spoofing Methods For Face Recognition with RGB Cameras of Generic Consumer Devicescited by 18
  6. 2020Generating Master Faces for Use in Performing Wolf Attacks on Face Recognition Systemscited by 13
  7. 2017Limited-Memory Matrix Adaptation for Large Scale Black-box Optimizationcited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 6; 2023: 2; 2024: 1; 2025: 0; 2026: 1.

10 papers.

  1. 2024GASLITEing the Retrieval: Exploring Vulnerabilities in Dense Embedding-based Searchcited by 20
  2. 2022On the (Limited) Generalization of MasterFace Attacks and Its Relation to the Capacity of Face Representationscited by 7
  3. 2022Generating 2D and 3D Master Faces for Dictionary Attacks with a Network-Assisted Latent Space Evolutioncited by 2
  4. 2023Alpha-wolves and Alpha-mammals: Exploring Dictionary Attacks on Iris Recognition Systemscited by 1
  5. 2022Reliable Detection of Doppelg"angers based on Deep Face Representationscited by 0
  6. 2022Face Verification Bypasscited by 0
  7. 2022Diversity and Novelty MasterPrints: Generating Multiple DeepMasterPrints for Increased User Coveragecited by 0
  8. 2022Analysis of Master Vein Attacks on Finger Vein Recognition Systemscited by 0
  9. 2023Generalized Attacks on Face Verification Systemscited by 0
  10. 2026Casting the Net! Revisiting MasterFace Impersonation Attackscited by 0