Are Robust LLM Fingerprints Adversarially Robust?
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
Model fingerprinting has emerged as a promising paradigm for claiming model ownership. However, robustness evaluations of these schemes have mostly focused on benign perturbations such as incremental fine-tuning, model merging, and prompting. Lack of systematic investigations into em adversarial robustness against a malicious model host leaves current systems vulnerable. To bridge this gap, we first define a concrete, practical threat model against model fingerprinting. We then take a critical look at existing model fingerprinting schemes to identify their fundamental vulnerabilities. Based on these, we develop adaptive adversarial attacks tailored for each vulnerability, and demonstrate that these can bypass model authentication completely for ten recently proposed fingerprinting schemes while maintaining high utility of the model for the end users. Our work encourages fingerprint designers to adopt adversarial robustness by design. We end with recommendations for future fingerprinting methods.
Key facts. Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 69 of its 87 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 30 Sep 2025.
Builds on
69 of 87 references.
References · 69
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38 more
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- 2021Backdoor Attacks on Pre-trained Models by Layerwise Weight Poisoningcited by 113
- 2019Deep Neural Network Fingerprinting by Conferrable Adversarial Examplescited by 93
- 2024Watermark Stealing in Large Language Modelscited by 92
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- 2024Instructional Fingerprinting of Large Language Modelscited by 68
- 2024Query-Based Adversarial Prompt Generationcited by 62
- 2022Fingerprinting Deep Neural Networks Globally via Universal Adversarial Perturbationscited by 61
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- 2023HuRef: HUman-REadable Fingerprint for Large Language Modelscited by 34
- 2024Your Large Language Models Are Leaving Fingerprintscited by 33
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- 2024Bypassing LLM Watermarks with Color-Aware Substitutionscited by 28
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50 most cited of 69 All 69 (JSON)
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 8.
8 papers.
- 2026AttnDiff: Attention-based Differential Fingerprinting for Large Language Modelscited by 4
- 2026KBF: Knowledge Boundary as Fingerprint for Language Model and Black-Box API Auditingcited by 3
- 2026Your "Pro" LLM Subscription May Actually Be "Free": Exposing Fingerprint Spoofing Risks in LLM Inference Servicescited by 3
- 2026Provable Model Provenance Set for Large Language Modelscited by 1
- 2026Referential Security as a New Paradigm for AI Evaluationscited by 0
- 2026modelDNA: Calibrated Lineage Verification and Merge Decomposition from Sampled Weight Fingerprintscited by 0
- 2026Auditing Anonymous AI Models: A Four-Stage Protocol for Black-Box Identity Verificationcited by 0
- 2026Language Model Fingerprinting Requires Rethinking Watermark Teacherscited by 0
- 2026Language Model Fingerprinting Requires Rethinking Watermark Teachers3 Oct 2026
- 2026Auditing Anonymous AI Models: A Four-Stage Protocol for Black-Box Identity Verification31 Aug 2026
- 2026modelDNA: Calibrated Lineage Verification and Merge Decomposition from Sampled Weight Fingerprints12 Jul 2026
- 2026Your "Pro" LLM Subscription May Actually Be "Free": Exposing Fingerprint Spoofing Risks in LLM Inference Services15 Jun 2026
- 2026KBF: Knowledge Boundary as Fingerprint for Language Model and Black-Box API Auditing28 May 2026
- 2026Referential Security as a New Paradigm for AI Evaluations25 May 2026
- 2026AttnDiff: Attention-based Differential Fingerprinting for Large Language Models7 Apr 2026
- 2026Provable Model Provenance Set for Large Language Models31 Jan 2026