# Image Watermarks are Removable Using Controllable Regeneration from Clean Noise

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05470 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05470/

## Key facts

- Cited by 50 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 44 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Oct 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 44)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07193/) (2023)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09800/) (2022)
- [Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01626/) (2022)
- [An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01618/) (2022)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04488/) (2022)
- [A Watermark for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10226/) (2023)
- [Q-Align: Teaching LMMs for Visual Scoring via Discrete Text-Defined Levels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17090/) (2023)
- [HiDDeN: Hiding Data With Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.09937/) (2018)
- [DiffusionDB: A Large-scale Prompt Gallery Dataset for Text-to-Image Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.14896/) (2022)
- [The Stable Signature: Rooting Watermarks in Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15435/) (2023)
- [Blind Image Quality Assessment via Vision-Language Correspondence: A Multitask Learning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14968/) (2023)
- [StegaStamp: Invisible Hyperlinks in Physical Photographs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05343/) (2019)
- [The Role of ImageNet Classes in Fr'echet Inception Distance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.06026/) (2022)
- [Robust Invisible Video Watermarking with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01285/) (2019)
- [Entangled Watermarks as a Defense against Model Extraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.12200/) (2020)
- [SSR-Encoder: Encoding Selective Subject Representation for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16272/) (2023)
- [Gaussian Shading: Provable Performance-Lossless Image Watermarking for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04956/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 50)

- [EasyControl: Adding Efficient and Flexible Control for Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07027/) (2025)
- [Any2AnyTryon: Leveraging Adaptive Position Embeddings for Versatile Virtual Clothing Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.15891/) (2025)
- [Black-Box Forgery Attacks on Semantic Watermarks for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03283/) (2024)
- [EEdit: Rethinking the Spatial and Temporal Redundancy for Efficient Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10270/) (2025)
- [ContextFlow: Training-Free Video Object Editing via Adaptive Context Enrichment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17818/) (2025)
- [DiffSim: Taming Diffusion Models for Evaluating Visual Similarity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14580/) (2024)
- [De-mark: Watermark Removal in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13808/) (2024)
- [Forging and Removing Latent-Noise Diffusion Watermarks Using a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.20111/) (2025)
- [Dataset Protection via Watermarked Canaries in Retrieval-Augmented LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.10673/) (2025)
- [Transferable Black-Box One-Shot Forging of Watermarks via Image Preference Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20468/) (2025)
- [MCA-Bench: A Multimodal Benchmark for Evaluating CAPTCHA Robustness Against VLM-based Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05982/) (2025)
- [In-Context Watermarks for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16934/) (2025)
- [OpenFake: An Open Dataset and Platform Toward Real-World Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09495/) (2025)
- [First-Place Solution to NeurIPS 2024 Invisible Watermark Removal Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21072/) (2025)
- [Autoregressive Images Watermarking through Lexical Biasing: An Approach Resistant to Regeneration Attack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01011/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Text-to-Image Diffusion Transformer via Split-Text Conditioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19261/) (2025)
- [Position: LLM Watermarking Should Align Stakeholders' Incentives for Practical Adoption](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18333/) (2025)
- [Radioactive Watermarks in Diffusion and Autoregressive Image Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23731/) (2025)
- [BitMark: Watermarking Bitwise Autoregressive Image Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21209/) (2025)
- [Secure and Robust Watermarking for AI-generated Images: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02384/) (2025)
- [SHIFT: Stochastic Hidden-Trajectory Deflection for Removing Diffusion-based Watermark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29742/) (2026)
- [Optimization-Free Universal Watermark Forgery with Regenerative Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06018/) (2025)
- [Fast, Secure, and High-Capacity Image Watermarking with Autoencoded Text Vectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00799/) (2025)
- [DiffSeg30k: A Multi-Turn Diffusion Editing Benchmark for Localized AIGC Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19111/) (2025)
- [MultiMotion: Multi Subject Video Motion Transfer via Video Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07500/) (2025)
- [Towards Robust Content Watermarking Against Removal and Forgery Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.06662/) (2026)
- [When and Where do Data Poisons Attack Textual Inversion?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10578/) (2025)
- [Boosting Adversarial Transferability via Commonality-Oriented Gradient Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06992/) (2025)
- [MetaSeal: Defending Against Image Attribution Forgery Through Content-Dependent Cryptographic Watermarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10766/) (2025)
- [Unified Long Video Inpainting and Outpainting via Overlapping High-Order Co-Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.03272/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Image watermark techniques provide an effective way to assert ownership, deter misuse, and trace content sources, which has become increasingly essential in the era of large generative models. A critical attribute of watermark techniques is their robustness against various manipulations. In this paper, we introduce a watermark removal approach capable of effectively nullifying state-of-the-art watermarking techniques. Our primary insight involves regenerating the watermarked image starting from a clean Gaussian noise via a controllable diffusion model, utilizing the extracted semantic and spatial features from the watermarked image. The semantic control adapter and the spatial control network are specifically trained to control the denoising process towards ensuring image quality and enhancing consistency between the cleaned image and the original watermarked image. To achieve a smooth trade-off between watermark removal performance and image consistency, we further propose an adjustable and controllable regeneration scheme. This scheme adds varying numbers of noise steps to the latent representation of the watermarked image, followed by a controlled denoising process starting from this noisy latent representation. As the number of noise steps increases, the latent representation progressively approaches clean Gaussian noise, facilitating the desired trade-off. We apply our watermark removal methods across various watermarking techniques, and the results demonstrate that our methods offer superior visual consistency/quality and enhanced watermark removal performance compared to existing regeneration approaches. Our code is available at https://github.com/yepengliu/CtrlRegen.