Revealing Vulnerabilities in Stable Diffusion via Targeted Attacks
On the map: Diffusion models → Robustness, privacy and adversarial aspects
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Abstract (arXiv)
Recent developments in text-to-image models, particularly Stable Diffusion, have marked significant achievements in various applications. With these advancements, there are growing safety concerns about the vulnerability of the model that malicious entities exploit to generate targeted harmful images. However, the existing methods in the vulnerability of the model mainly evaluate the alignment between the prompt and generated images, but fall short in revealing the vulnerability associated with targeted image generation. In this study, we formulate the problem of targeted adversarial attack on Stable Diffusion and propose a framework to generate adversarial prompts. Specifically, we design a gradient-based embedding optimization method to craft reliable adversarial prompts that guide stable diffusion to generate specific images. Furthermore, after obtaining successful adversarial prompts, we reveal the mechanisms that cause the vulnerability of the model. Extensive experiments on two targeted attack tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in targeted attacks. The code can be obtained in https://github.com/datar001/Revealing-Vulnerabilities-in-Stable-Diffusion-via-Targeted-Attacks.
Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Robustness, privacy and adversarial aspects, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 33 of its 41 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jan 2024.
Builds on
33 of 41 references.
Closest ancestors · 2
Same direction, newest first
- 2023Evaluating the Robustness of Text-to-image Diffusion Models against Real-world Attacks16 Jun
- 2023Stable Diffusion is Unstable5 Jun
Other references · 31
- 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
- 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
- 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
- 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,355
- 2013Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Spacecited by 4,375
- 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,614
- 2022DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generationcited by 3,300
- 2022DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusioncited by 3,025
- 2022InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructionscited by 2,611
19 more
- 2022Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Controlcited by 2,431
- 2020Reliable evaluation of adversarial robustness with an ensemble of diverse parameter-free attackscited by 1,451
- 2014Deep Neural Networks are Easily Fooled: High Confidence Predictions for Unrecognizable Imagescited by 776
- 2021Vector Quantized Diffusion Model for Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 774
- 2023Attend-and-Excite: Attention-Based Semantic Guidance for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 702
- 2018Explaining Explanations: An Overview of Interpretability of Machine Learningcited by 508
- 2022Latent-NeRF for Shape-Guided Generation of 3D Shapes and Texturescited by 506
- 2020BERT-ATTACK: Adversarial Attack Against BERT Using BERTcited by 491
- 2018Manipulating and Measuring Model Interpretabilitycited by 256
- 2022What the DAAM: Interpreting Stable Diffusion Using Cross Attentioncited by 236
- 2022MM-Diffusion: Learning Multi-Modal Diffusion Models for Joint Audio and Video Generationcited by 227
- 2019Controllable Text-to-Image Generationcited by 187
- 2019Efficient Decision-based Black-box Adversarial Attacks on Face Recognitioncited by 175
- 2023NUWA-XL: Diffusion over Diffusion for eXtremely Long Video Generationcited by 171
- 2017On the Robustness of Semantic Segmentation Models to Adversarial Attackscited by 126
- 2021Model Extraction and Adversarial Transferability, Your BERT is Vulnerable!cited by 53
- 2022Adversarial Attacks on Image Generation With Made-Up Wordscited by 32
- 2021Bridge the Gap Between CV and NLP! A Gradient-based Textual Adversarial Attack Frameworkcited by 28
- 2022TextHacker: Learning based Hybrid Local Search Algorithm for Text Hard-label Adversarial Attackcited by 10
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2024: 3; 2025: 4; 2026: 2.
9 papers.
- 2025Safety at Scale: A Comprehensive Survey of Large Model and Agent Safetycited by 67
- 2024Adversarial Attacks and Defenses on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models: A Surveycited by 35
- 2024Attacks and Defenses for Generative Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 32
- 2025Reason2Attack: Jailbreaking Text-to-Image Models via LLM Reasoningcited by 15
- 2024ProTIP: Probabilistic Robustness Verification on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models against Stochastic Perturbationcited by 10
- 2026CtrlAttack: A Unified Attack on World-Model Control in Diffusion Modelscited by 7
- 2025T2VAttack: Adversarial Attack on Text-to-Video Diffusion Modelscited by 5
- 2025Metaphor-based Jailbreak Attacks on Text-to-Image Modelscited by 0
- 2026STARE: Step-wise Temporal Alignment and Red-teaming Engine for Multi-modal Toxicity Attackcited by 0
- 2026STARE: Step-wise Temporal Alignment and Red-teaming Engine for Multi-modal Toxicity Attack1 May 2026
- 2026CtrlAttack: A Unified Attack on World-Model Control in Diffusion Models13 Mar 2026
- 2025T2VAttack: Adversarial Attack on Text-to-Video Diffusion Models30 Dec 2025
- 2025Metaphor-based Jailbreak Attacks on Text-to-Image Models6 Dec 2025
- 2025Reason2Attack: Jailbreaking Text-to-Image Models via LLM Reasoning23 Mar 2025
- 2025Safety at Scale: A Comprehensive Survey of Large Model and Agent Safety2 Feb 2025
- 2024Attacks and Defenses for Generative Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey6 Aug 2024
- 2024Adversarial Attacks and Defenses on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models: A Survey10 Jul 2024
- 2024ProTIP: Probabilistic Robustness Verification on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models against Stochastic Perturbation23 Feb 2024
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- 2023A Pilot Study of Query-Free Adversarial Attack against Stable Diffusion
- 2024AdvI2I: Adversarial Image Attack on Image-to-Image Diffusion models
- 2024Protective Perturbations against Unauthorized Data Usage in Diffusion-based Image Generation
- 2024Safeguarding Text-to-Image Generation via Inference-Time Prompt-Noise Optimization
- 2025Embedding Hidden Adversarial Capabilities in Pre-Trained Diffusion Models
- 2023Improving Adversarial Transferability by Stable Diffusion
- 2023To Generate or Not? Safety-Driven Unlearned Diffusion Models Are Still Easy To Generate Unsafe Images ... For Now
- 2023Targeted Attack Improves Protection against Unauthorized Diffusion Customization