Dynamic Attention Analysis for Backdoor Detection in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
On the map: Diffusion models → Robustness, privacy and adversarial aspects
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Abstract (arXiv)
Recent studies have revealed that text-to-image diffusion models are vulnerable to backdoor attacks, where attackers implant stealthy textual triggers to manipulate model outputs. Previous backdoor detection methods primarily focus on the static features of backdoor samples. However, a vital property of diffusion models is their inherent dynamism. This study introduces a novel backdoor detection perspective named Dynamic Attention Analysis (DAA), showing that these dynamic characteristics serve as better indicators for backdoor detection. Specifically, by examining the dynamic evolution of cross-attention maps, we observe that backdoor samples exhibit distinct feature evolution patterns at the <EOS> token compared to benign samples. To quantify these dynamic anomalies, we first introduce DAA-I, which treats the tokens' attention maps as spatially independent and measures dynamic feature using the Frobenius norm. Furthermore, to better capture the interactions between attention maps and refine the feature, we propose a dynamical system-based approach, referred to as DAA-S. This model formulates the spatial correlations among attention maps using a graph-based state equation and we theoretically analyze the global asymptotic stability of this method. Extensive experiments across six representative backdoor attack scenarios demonstrate that our approach significantly surpasses existing detection methods, achieving an average F1 Score of 79.27% and an AUC of 86.27%. The code is available at https://github.com/Robin-WZQ/DAA.
Key facts. Cited by 3 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 46 of its 74 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Apr 2025.
Builds on
46 of 74 references.
Closest ancestors · 8
Same direction, newest first
- 2024TERD: A Unified Framework for Safeguarding Diffusion Models Against Backdoors9 Sep
- 2024Defending Text-to-image Diffusion Models: Surprising Efficacy of Textual Perturbations Against Backdoor Attacks28 Aug
- 2024DisDet: Exploring Detectability of Backdoor Attack on Diffusion Models5 Feb
- 2023Elijah: Eliminating Backdoors Injected in Diffusion Models via Distribution Shift27 Nov
- 2023Unified Concept Editing in Diffusion Models25 Aug
- 2023Backdooring Textual Inversion for Concept Censorship21 Aug
- 2023Text-to-Image Diffusion Models can be Easily Backdoored through Multimodal Data Poisoning7 May
- 2023Erasing Concepts from Diffusion Models13 Mar
Other references · 38
- 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
- 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,744
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
- 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,713
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
- 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,380
- 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
- 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,847
- 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,503
26 more
- 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
- 2022BLIP: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training for Unified Vision-Language Understanding and Generationcited by 4,322
- 2022DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generationcited by 3,300
- 2022Locating and Editing Factual Associations in GPTcited by 2,691
- 2022InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructionscited by 2,611
- 2022An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversioncited by 2,245
- 2022Scaling Autoregressive Models for Content-Rich Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,295
- 2022Diffusion Models in Vision: A Surveycited by 1,015
- 2022Mass-Editing Memory in a Transformercited by 1,001
- 2022DiffusionDB: A Large-scale Prompt Gallery Dataset for Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 379
- 2020Input-Aware Dynamic Backdoor Attackcited by 313
- 2022Diffusion Models for Medical Image Analysis: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 273
- 2023LayoutDiffusion: Controllable Diffusion Model for Layout-to-image Generationcited by 259
- 2021More Control for Free! Image Synthesis with Semantic Diffusion Guidancecited by 212
- 2020Dataset Security for Machine Learning: Data Poisoning, Backdoor Attacks, and Defensescited by 180
- 2023StableVITON: Learning Semantic Correspondence with Latent Diffusion Model for Virtual Try-Oncited by 175
- 2023TryOnDiffusion: A Tale of Two UNetscited by 141
- 2021Talk-to-Edit: Fine-Grained Facial Editing via Dialogcited by 102
- 2021CAT: Cross Attention in Vision Transformercited by 92
- 2024Get What You Want, Not What You Don't: Image Content Suppression for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 63
- 2022Rickrolling the Artist: Injecting Backdoors into Text Encoders for Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 59
- 2024Towards Understanding the Working Mechanism of Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelcited by 48
- 2024Magnet: We Never Know How Text-to-Image Diffusion Models Work, Until We Learn How Vision-Language Models Functioncited by 19
- 2022Can There be Art Without an Artist?cited by 10
- 2024Towards Unified Robustness Against Both Backdoor and Adversarial Attackscited by 10
- 2024Dysca: A Dynamic and Scalable Benchmark for Evaluating Perception Ability of LVLMscited by 6
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.
- 2026BlackMirror: Black-Box Backdoor Detection for Text-to-Image Models via Instruction-Response Deviationcited by 1
- 2026Beyond the False Trade-off: Adaptive EWC for Stealthy and Generalizable T2I Backdoorscited by 0
- 2026Awakening the Hydra: Stabilizing Multi-Concept Backdoor Injection in Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 0
- 2026Awakening the Hydra: Stabilizing Multi-Concept Backdoor Injection in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models19 May 2026
- 2026Beyond the False Trade-off: Adaptive EWC for Stealthy and Generalizable T2I Backdoors8 May 2026
- 2026BlackMirror: Black-Box Backdoor Detection for Text-to-Image Models via Instruction-Response Deviation6 Mar 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026Learning Normal Diffusion Dynamics for Backdoor Defense in Text-to-Image Models
- 2026Scaling Exposes the Trigger: Input-Level Backdoor Detection in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models via Cross-Attention Scaling
- 2025Backdoor Defense in Diffusion Models via Spatial Attention Unlearning
- 2024T2IShield: Defending Against Backdoors on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
- 2025Trigger without Trace: Towards Stealthy Backdoor Attack on Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
- 2026Tuning Just Enough: Lightweight Backdoor Attacks on Multi-Encoder Diffusion Models
- 2026TEMPO-Diffusion: Temporally Exposed Malicious Poisoning of Diffusion Models
- 2024UFID: A Unified Framework for Input-level Backdoor Detection on Diffusion Models