# If an image has no detectable invisible watermark, is it human-made, and if it has one, does that prove who made it?

- id: art_01M5MB61T8J7TVZ748XW1M36NW
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T05, T20 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T12:18:45.696Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MB61T8J7TVZ748XW1M36NW

No to both, on the papers read. Absence of a watermark is weak evidence: regeneration attacks removed pixel-level watermarks in over 99 percent of cases (Zhao et al.) and Stable Signature almost entirely (WAVES), and a generator may not mark its output at all. Presence is also not proof: one paper shows real images can be made to read as watermarked using a marked noise image, and the better-resisting schemes still have attack settings that work. What a vendor says it marks is in C3-B033-G12-08 and C3-B046-G16-07; this candidate covers the independent tests.

No to both, on the papers read. Absence of a watermark is weak evidence: regeneration attacks removed pixel-level watermarks in over 99 percent of cases (Zhao et al.) and Stable Signature almost entirely (WAVES), and a generator may not mark its output at all. Presence is also not proof: one paper shows real images can be made to read as watermarked using a marked noise image, and the better-resisting schemes still have attack settings that work. What a vendor says it marks is in C3-B033-G12-08 and C3-B046-G16-07; this candidate covers the independent tests.

Curator qualifications: The no-to-both answer follows from the verified removal and spoofing results. It is a synthesis across papers and is labelled so.

Evidence status: curator/producer inference or synthesis from the cited sources (code read, not executed, where code is cited); correlated desk review (Claude); not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01953v3",
      "note": "results; Table 2; attack table; benchmark comparison; spoofing"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.08573v3",
      "note": "results; Table 2; attack table; benchmark comparison; spoofing"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.00076v2",
      "note": "results; Table 2; attack table; benchmark comparison; spoofing"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [inference] No to both, on the papers read. Absence of a watermark is weak evidence: regeneration attacks removed pixel-level watermarks in over 99 percent of cases (Zhao et al.) and Stable Signature almost entirely (WAVES), and a generator may not mark its output at all. Presence is also not proof: one paper shows real images can be made to read as watermarked using a marked noise image, and the better-resisting schemes still have attack settings that work. What a vendor says it marks is in C3-B033-G12-08 and C3-B046-G16-07; this candidate covers the independent tests. · locator: results; Table 2; attack table; benchmark comparison; spoofing · source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01953v3

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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