# Inverting Black-Box Face Recognition Systems via Zero-Order Optimization in Eigenface Space

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09777 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09777/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03832/) (2015)
- [Understanding Deep Image Representations by Inverting Them](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.0035/) (2014)
- [The Secret Revealer: Generative Model-Inversion Attacks Against Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07135/) (2019)
- [On the Reconstruction of Face Images from Deep Face Templates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.00832/) (2017)
- [Plug & Play Attacks: Towards Robust and Flexible Model Inversion Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.12179/) (2022)
- [Vec2Face: Unveil Human Faces from their Blackbox Features in Face Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.06958/) (2020)
- [Controllable Inversion of Black-Box Face Recognition Models via Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13006/) (2023)
- [Label-Only Model Inversion Attacks via Knowledge Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19342/) (2023)
- [Black-Box Face Recovery from Identity Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.13635/) (2020)
- [A Closer Look at GAN Priors: Exploiting Intermediate Features for Enhanced Model Inversion Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13863/) (2024)
- [Face Reconstruction from Face Embeddings using Adapter to a Face Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03960/) (2024)
- [Randomized gradient-free methods in convex optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13566/) (2022)
- [DiffMI: Breaking Face Recognition Privacy via Diffusion-Driven Training-Free Model Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18015/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Breaking High Confidence: Practical Face Impersonation under High-Security Thresholds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20884/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reconstructing facial images from black-box recognition models poses a significant privacy threat. While many methods require access to embeddings, we address the more challenging scenario of model inversion using only similarity scores. This paper introduces DarkerBB, a novel approach that reconstructs color faces by performing zero-order optimization within a PCA-derived eigenface space. Despite this highly limited information, experiments on LFW, AgeDB-30, and CFP-FP benchmarks demonstrate that DarkerBB achieves state-of-the-art verification accuracies in the similarity-only setting, with competitive query efficiency.