APSIPA Transactions on Signal and Information Processing > Vol 14 > Issue 3

3D Morphable Master Face: Towards Controllable Wolf Attacks Against 2D and 3D Face Recognition Systems

Siyun Liang, Technical University of Munich, Germany, siyun.liang@tum.de , Huy H. Nguyen, National Institute of Informatics, Japan, Satoshi Ikehata, National Institute of Informatics, Japan, Junichi Yamagishi, National Institute of Informatics, Japan, Isao Echizen, National Institute of Informatics, Japan AND The University of Tokyo, Japan
 
Suggested Citation
Siyun Liang, Huy H. Nguyen, Satoshi Ikehata, Junichi Yamagishi and Isao Echizen (2025), "3D Morphable Master Face: Towards Controllable Wolf Attacks Against 2D and 3D Face Recognition Systems", APSIPA Transactions on Signal and Information Processing: Vol. 14: No. 3, e200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/116.20240089

Publication Date: 25 Jun 2025
© 2025 S. Liang, H. H. Nguyen, S. Ikehata, J. Yamagishi and I. Echizen
 
Subjects
Forensics
 
Keywords
3D master faceface recognition3D morphable face model
 

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In this article:
Introduction 
Related Work 
Proposed Method 
Experiments 
Defense Against 3D Master Face Attack 
Limitation 
Discussion and Conclusion 
Acknowledgments 
References 

Abstract

Biometric authentication systems are facing increasing threats from artificial intelligence-generated content. Previous research has revealed the vulnerability of 2D face authentication systems to master face attacks, which use GAN-based models to create facial samples capable of matching multiple registered user templates in the database. However, the effectiveness of such attacks in 3D scenarios has not been thoroughly investigated.

In this paper, we present a systematic approach to generate master faces that can compromise both 2D and 3D face recognition systems. It uses a latent variable evolution algorithm with a 3D face morphable model. Notably, our approach achieves, for the first time, controllable and morphable master face attacks on face authentication systems. We explore the effect of facial reenactment and face morphing on enhancing the efficacy of master face attacks and reducing the time required for master face generation. Comprehensive simulations of simultaneous master face attacks based on white-box, gray-box, and black-box scenarios demonstrated that our approach achieves superior attack success rates and has advanced flexibility compared with existing methods, highlighting the importance of defending against master face attacks.

DOI:10.1561/116.20240089

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APSIPA Transactions on Signal and Information Processing Special Issue - Deepfakes, Unrestricted Adversaries, and Synthetic Realities in the Generative AI Era
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