Netinfo Security ›› 2026, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (4): 566-578.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1671-1122.2026.04.005

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Model Inversion Defense Method Based on Knowledge Transfer and Freezing

YI Wenzhe1,2, XU Xiaoyang1,2, SHI Lei3, ZHUANG Yong1,2, WANG Juan1,2()   

  1. 1 School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    2 Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Security and Trusted Computing of Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430072, China
    3 Beijing Yuhong Xin’an Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2025-06-16 Online:2026-04-10 Published:2026-04-29

Abstract:

With the rapid development and widespread application of deep learning technology, concerns about privacy and security issues have been growing. Model inversion attacks can reconstruct users facial images solely based on model parameters, posing a serious threat to user privacy. Although existing research has proposed various defense strategies, there are still challenges in balancing model performance and defense effectiveness, as well as in defending against emerging attacks. To address these issues, this paper proposed a model inversion defense method based on knowledge transfer and freezing. By freezing the fully connected layers most relevant to classification, the method effectively prevented the extraction of private information. Meanwhile, it transferred the parameters adjacent to the fully connected layers to further enhance defense performance. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared to existing defense methods, the proposed method achieves superior defense effectiveness and stability across multiple models and datasets.

Key words: model inversion attacks, transfer learning, privacy protection

CLC Number: