# TAG-WM: Tamper-Aware Generative Image Watermarking via Diffusion Inversion Sensitivity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23484 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23484/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Watermarking generated content and models, one of 12 directions in LLM safety and security.
- Builds on 23 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jun 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM safety and security / [Watermarking generated content and models](https://mlsanity.com/safety/watermarking-generated-content-and-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01952/) (2023)
- [DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00927/) (2022)
- [Pseudo Numerical Methods for Diffusion Models on Manifolds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09778/) (2022)
- [Fast Sampling of Diffusion Models with Exponential Integrator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.13902/) (2022)
- [UniPC: A Unified Predictor-Corrector Framework for Fast Sampling of Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04867/) (2023)
- [HiDDeN: Hiding Data With Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.09937/) (2018)
- [The Stable Signature: Rooting Watermarks in Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15435/) (2023)
- [MAT: Mask-Aware Transformer for Large Hole Image Inpainting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15270/) (2022)
- [Tree-Ring Watermarks: Fingerprints for Diffusion Images that are Invisible and Robust](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20030/) (2023)
- [Robust Invisible Video Watermarking with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01285/) (2019)
- [Gaussian Shading: Provable Performance-Lossless Image Watermarking for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04956/) (2024)
- [Hierarchical Fine-Grained Image Forgery Detection and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17111/) (2023)
- [PSCC-Net: Progressive Spatio-Channel Correlation Network for Image Manipulation Detection and Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10596/) (2021)
- [MVSS-Net: Multi-View Multi-Scale Supervised Networks for Image Manipulation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08935/) (2021)
- [EditGuard: Versatile Image Watermarking for Tamper Localization and Copyright Protection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08883/) (2023)
- [MBRS : Enhancing Robustness of DNN-based Watermarking by Mini-Batch of Real and Simulated JPEG Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08211/) (2021)
- [SepMark: Deep Separable Watermarking for Unified Source Tracing and Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06321/) (2023)
- [MaLP: Manipulation Localization Using a Proactive Scheme](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16976/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [OSI: One-step Inversion Excels in Extracting Diffusion Watermarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09494/) (2026)
- [Understanding Semantic Perturbations on In-Processing Generative Image Watermarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27513/) (2026)
- [Rethinking Forgery Attacks on Semantic Watermarks in Black-Box Settings: A Geometric Distortion Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29807/) (2026)
- [RaMark: Radioactive Watermarking for Generated Tabular Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.09000/) (2026)
- [High-Capacity Robust Watermarking Technology for High-Resolution Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.17056/) (2026)
- [SPFM-Net: Semantic-Prior-Guided Frequency-Constrained Mamba for Invisible Watermark Attack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27811/) (2026)
- [Residual Transferability in Neural Image Watermarking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.32241/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

AI-generated content (AIGC) enables efficient visual creation but raises copyright and authenticity risks. As a common technique for integrity verification and source tracing, digital image watermarking is regarded as a potential solution to above issues. However, the widespread adoption and advancing capabilities of generative image editing tools have amplified malicious tampering risks, while simultaneously posing new challenges to passive tampering detection and watermark robustness. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a Tamper-Aware Generative image WaterMarking method named TAG-WM. The proposed method comprises four key modules: a dual-mark joint sampling (DMJS) algorithm for embedding copyright and localization watermarks into the latent space while preserving generative quality, the watermark latent reconstruction (WLR) utilizing reversed DMJS, a dense variation region detector (DVRD) leveraging diffusion inversion sensitivity to identify tampered areas via statistical deviation analysis, and the tamper-aware decoding (TAD) guided by localization results. The experimental results demonstrate that TAG-WM achieves state-of-the-art performance in both tampering robustness and localization capability even under distortion, while preserving lossless generation quality and maintaining a watermark capacity of 256 bits. The code is available at: https://github.com/Suchenl/TAG-WM.