# Hybrid Semantic and Spectral Ensemble for Robust Synthetic Image Source Attribution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.22808 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.22808/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 10 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [Leveraging Frequency Analysis for Deep Fake Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08685/) (2020)
- [Artificial Fingerprinting for Generative Models: Rooting Deepfake Attribution in Training Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08457/) (2020)
- [Fourier Spectrum Discrepancies in Deep Network Generated Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.06465/) (2019)
- [WILD: a new in-the-Wild Image Linkage Dataset for synthetic image attribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19595/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid advancement of text-to-image (T2I) models has necessitated robust Synthetic Image Source Attribution (SIA) methodologies. A critical challenge in SIA is the distribution shift between pristine training images and real-world deployed images, which undergo unknown post-processing operations such as JPEG compression and blurring. In this work, proposed for the DLMMDD Challenge at ICANN 2026, we introduce a dual-branch ensemble framework fusing Semantic Deep Learning with Mathematical Forensic Feature Extraction. The semantic branch employs EfficientNet-B0 regularized with Exponential Moving Averaging (EMA) and Label Smoothing. The forensic branch extracts 126 mathematical features -- including SVD spectral profiles and Local Binary Patterns -- from high-pass noise residuals, compressed via Truncated SVD and classified with XGBoost. Evaluated on a dataset of 10 generators where 55% of the test set is degraded, our approach achieves a private leaderboard accuracy of 95.60%. Furthermore, the entire pipeline is highly computationally efficient, requiring no GPU acceleration and executing end-to-end on a standard CPU in under 6.5 hours, highlighting the practicality and scalability of mathematical forensics for real-world deployment.