Combating Data Laundering in LLM Training
Organizations: University of Melbourne · University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract
Post-hoc unauthorized-training data detection for large language models (LLMs) typically assumes a query-with-originals regime: rights holders query a target LLM with raw proprietary data and assess whether the model assigns them stronger memorization-based detection signals, e.g., higher confidence or lower loss, than held-out non-training reference texts. We show that this regime becomes brittle under data laundering, where the target LLM is trained on semantics-preserving but stylistically or structurally transformed surrogates of proprietary data to obfuscate provenance. Since training-time exposure occurs in the laundered form, memorization signals may no longer appear on the originals, collapsing the candidate-reference signal separation that standard detectors rely on. We counter this threat by studying laundering-aware detection with raw proprietary data, a held-out reference corpus, and query access to the target LLM, while the laundering transformation is undisclosed. Since exact recovery of the laundered corpus is infeasible, we infer a detection-useful synthesis process via an auxiliary LLM that maps originals into training-like queries. To make this search tractable, we introduce Synthesis Data Reversion (SDR), which constrains the unbounded space of natural-language transformations through a goal-details abstraction: a high-level transformation goal, e.g., "lyrical rewriting", and fine-grained details, e.g., "with vivid imagery". SDR identifies the most likely goal and iteratively refines details so synthesized queries elicit stronger target-model detection signals. Evaluated on the MIMIR benchmark against diverse laundering practices and target LLM families (Pythia, Llama2, and Falcon), SDR consistently restores detection signals, offering a practical auditing layer against data laundering.
Figures & tables
| Methods | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | |||
| Orig. | Syn. | Orig. | Syn. | Orig. | Syn. | |
| Loss ( Yeom et al., 2018 ) | 1.000 | 0.539 | 1.000 | 0.565 | 1.000 | 0.040 |
| Ref ( Carlini et al., 2022 ) | 0.971 | 0.603 | 0.920 | 0.610 | 0.850 | 0.100 |
| Zlib ( Carlini et al., 2021 ) | 1.000 | 0.521 | 1.000 | 0.535 | 1.000 | 0.080 |
| Min-K ( Shi et al., 2023 ) | 1.000 | 0.563 | 1.000 | 0.575 | 1.000 | 0.040 |
| Recall ( Xie et al., 2024 ) | 0.999 | 0.558 | 0.995 | 0.565 | 1.000 | 0.000 |
| Method | Inside registers | Outside registers | ||||
| AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | |
| Recall | 64.7% | 63.4% | 8.9% | 61.7% | 61.4% | 5.6% |
| Recall+ SDR | 76.2% | 72.0% | 25.3% | 73.4% | 73.3% | 23.2% |
| Loss | 63.7% | 62.8% | 10.7% | 62.7% | 62.6% | 9.2% |
| Loss+ SDR | 76.6% | 72.6% | 26.2% | 75.5% | 75.5% | 22.9% |
| Ref | 68.6% | 67.0% | 15.0% | 67.6% | 65.6% | 13.2% |
| Method | Wikipedia | Hackernews | C4 | ||||||
| AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | |
| Recall | 61.7% | 61.4% | 5.6% | 53.9% | 56.2% | 9.9% | 52.2% | 55.0% | 5.0% |
| Recall+ SDR | 73.4% | 73.3% | 23.2% | 61.6% | 60.3% | 10.7% | 65.2% | 63.0% | 12.0% |
| Loss | 62.7% | 62.6% | 9.2% | 54.2% | 56.0% | 6.3% | 58.4% | 59.1% | 7.2% |
| Loss+ SDR | 75.5% | 75.5% | 22.9% | 62.7% | 59.6% | 8.7% | 67.3% | 64.2% | 13.0% |
| Min-K | 64.2% | 62.5% | 10.5% | 53.8% | 55.9% | 5.7% | 57.6% | 59.2% | 6.2% |
| Method | Pythia-6.9B | Falcon-7B | LLama-2-7B | ||||||
| AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | |
| Recall | 61.7% | 61.4% | 5.6% | 62.1% | 61.8% | 8.2% | 61.6% | 61.6% | 8.2% |
| Recall+ SDR | 73.4% | 73.3% | 23.2% | 72.4% | 69.1% | 23.0% | 67.5% | 66.2% | 12.5% |
| Loss | 62.7% | 62.6% | 9.2% | 64.4% | 64.4% | 11.5% | 64.5% | 64.4% | 11.1% |
| Loss+ SDR | 75.5% | 75.5% | 22.9% | 71.2% | 68.0% | 20.2% | 73.6% | 70.4% | 26.9% |
| Min-K | 64.2% | 62.5% | 10.5% | 63.3% | 62.6% | 10.5% | 62.5% | 62.5% | 13.9% |
| Method | GPT-4o | Claude | DeepSeek | ||||||
| AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | AUC | ASR | TPR@5% | |
| Recall | 64.5% | 63.5% | 9.9% | 66.8% | 65.9% | 9.7% | 65.5% | 64.8% | 7.4% |
| Recall+ SDR | 79.7% | 75.0% | 31.6% | 81.6% | 77.7% | 31.0% | 79.8% | 75.5% | 31.2% |
| Loss | 63.4% | 62.2% | 14.3% | 67.3% | 65.3% | 12.1% | 65.9% | 64.7% | 12.2% |
| Loss+ SDR | 80.3% | 75.6% | 32.6% | 83.4% | 77.8% | 41.9% | 79.0% | 74.7% | 32.8% |
| Min-K | 63.7% | 62.3% | 11.0% | 68.1% | 65.5% | 14.5% | 67.0% | 64.6% | 14.2% |
Appendix figures & tables20 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Symbol | Description |
| Proprietary dataset (candidate corpus). | |
| Model provider’s full training dataset. | |
| Held-out non-training reference dataset. | |
| Target LLM trained on . | |
| Auxiliary LLM used only for synthesis. | |
| Current reverse-synthesis prompt refined during iterations. |
| Name | Abbr. | Name | Abbr. | |
| Lyrical | ly | Encyclopedia article | en | |
| Spoken | sp | Research article | ra | |
| Interview | it | Description of a thing or person | dtp | |
| Interactive discussion | id | FAQ | fi | |
| Narrative | na | Legal terms & conditions | lt | |
| News report | ne | Opinion | op |
| Register | Opening Template |
| Lyrical | In the heart of [abstract domain], a tale unfolds, where [abstract concept], [abstract detail], [abstract entity], [abstract action]. |
| Spoken style | So, let’s talk about [TOPIC]. |
| Interview | Interviewer: Thank you for joining us, [Person/Expert Title]. Can you tell us about [Subject/Topic]? |
| Interactive discussion | [Participant 1]: So, have you guys heard about [Topic/Subject]? I recently came across some interesting information about it. |
| Storytelling narrative | Once upon a time, in a [adjective] [type of place] called [place name], there lived a [adjective] [type of character] named [character name]. |
| News report | [Event/Topic]: [Description/Significance] [Location/Context] – [Details about the subject, including noteworthy contributions, roles, or milestones]. |
| Lora_alpha | r | epochs | lr | gradient accumulation steps | weight_decay | logging_strategy |
| 32 | 8 | 30 | 0.0004 | 25 | 0.1 | “epoch” |
| ID | Laundering Prompts |
| 1 | Rewrite the text in a lyrical style, ensuring the imagery is vivid, the rhythm flows naturally. |
| 2 | Rewrite the text in a spoken style, making it sound natural and conversational, and ensure the tone feels engaging and easy to follow for a live audience. |
| 3 | Rewrite the text in the form of an interview, ensuring the questions flow naturally and the answers provide clear, engaging explanations for the audience. |
| 4 | Rewrite the text as an interactive discussion between two or more participants, ensuring the conversation flows logically, with each speaker’s tone and style clearly distinguishable. |
| 5 | Rewrite the text as a storytelling narrative. The story should flow naturally, use simple and engaging language, and be easy for all kinds of listeners to follow. |
| 6 | Rewrite the text in the style of a news report, ensuring the information is presented objectively and concisely. |
| ID | Laundering Prompts |
| 1 | Rewrite the following content as slide presentation bullet points. Focus on summarizing the key arguments and findings clearly and concisely. Use concise phrases that highlight core points. |
| 2 | Rewrite the following text in the style of a Facebook post. Sharing interesting information with followers. You may add light commentary, questions to the audience, or casual phrasing, but keep it natural and human-like. Avoid using emojis, hashtags, or overly dramatic expressions. |
| 3 | Adapt the text into a poetic form with vivid metaphors, rhythmic structure, and emotionally evocative language. |
| 4 | Convert the content into a tutorial-style explanation for beginners, using step-by-step instructions, simple analogies, and common misunderstandings. |
| 5 | Rewrite the text as a formal business email, ensuring clarity, professionalism, and a polite tone. |
| 6 | Rewrite the passage as a scientific abstract, including Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Invent at least two numerical values (percentages, sample sizes, or statistical outcomes) to support claims. |
| ID | Original Prompt | Reversed Prompt ( SDR ) | Orig (AUC) | SDR (AUC) |
| 1 | Rewrite the text in a lyrical style, ensuring the imagery is vivid, the rhythm flows naturally. | Rewrite the text in a lyrical style, enhancing the poetic rhythm and imagery while capturing the essence and emotional depth of the original content. | 0.540 | 0.692 |
| 2 | Rewrite the text in a spoken style, making it sound natural and conversational, and ensure the tone feels engaging and easy to follow for a live audience. | Rewrite the text to sound natural and conversational, using everyday language and personal anecdotes to create an engaging and friendly atmosphere for the listener. | 0.702 | 0.894 |
| 3 | Rewrite the text in the form of an interview, ensuring the questions flow naturally and the answers provide clear, engaging explanations for the audience. | Rewrite the text in the form of an interview, ensuring a clear and engaging dialogue that accurately conveys the information while maintaining a conversational tone and eliciting detailed responses. | 0.713 | 0.823 |
| 4 | Rewrite the text as an interactive discussion between two or more participants, ensuring the conversation flows logically, with each speaker’s tone and style clearly distinguishable. | Rewrite the text as an interactive discussion between two or more participants, ensuring a natural flow of dialogue that incorporates factual information and engages with the topic through building on each other’s comments. | 0.650 | 0.770 |
| 5 | Rewrite the text as a storytelling narrative. The story should flow naturally, use simple and engaging language, and be easy for all kinds of listeners to follow. | Rewrite the text in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions section, transforming the information into clear and concise questions and answers that emphasize key details and engage the reader effectively. | 0.646 | 0.735 |
| 6 | Rewrite the text in the style of a news report, ensuring the information is presented objectively and concisely. | Rewrite the text into a Frequently Asked Questions section, organizing the information into clear and concise questions and answers while highlighting key details and maintaining clarity and readability. | 0.793 | 0.904 |
| ID | Original Prompt | Reversed Prompt ( SDR ) | Orig (AUC) | SDR (AUC) |
| 13 | Rewrite the text in the style of an editorial, making sure to include a clear stance or opinion and a concluding paragraph that calls for action or reflection. | Rewrite the text as a personal opinion piece, emphasizing reflective commentary and personal insights while exploring the broader societal implications and significance of the subject matter. | 0.594 | 0.657 |
| 14 | Rewrite the text as an informational description, ensuring the tone is neutral and objective, and include at least one definition or clarification to help the reader better understand the subject. | Rewrite the text as a step-by-step instructional guide, organizing the content into clear, numbered sections that effectively communicate essential information about the subject. | 0.594 | 0.795 |
| 15 | Rewrite the text in the style of an encyclopedia entry, maintaining a neutral, authoritative tone, and include at least one date, fact, or reference to give it the appearance of being sourced. | Rewrite the text as an informational description, focusing on presenting a clear, structured overview of the subject’s key facts, achievements, and background while maintaining concise and objective language. | 0.792 | 0.923 |
| 16 | Rewrite the text as an academic research article, structured with sections such as Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, and Conclusion, and include at least one in-text citation (invented if necessary) to simulate scholarly referencing. | Rewrite the text in the form of an interview, transforming the original content into a conversational dialogue that incorporates engaging questions and responses while maintaining clarity and coherence. | 0.525 | 0.546 |
| 17 | Rewrite the text as a descriptive profile of a specific thing or person, using vivid details and attributes (appearance, characteristics, or context) and ending with a short summary sentence that highlights its significance. | Rewrite the text as a sales description, transforming it into an engaging narrative that highlights the subject’s achievements, legacy, and emotional impact to captivate and appeal to potential audiences. | 0.661 | 0.765 |
| 18 | Rewrite the text in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, making sure to include at least three question–answer pairs, with the questions phrased from the perspective of a curious reader. | Rewrite the text in the form of an interview, transforming factual information into a conversational question-and-answer format that captures personal insights, key themes, and details from the original content. | 0.640 | 0.792 |
| ID | Original Prompt | Reversed Prompt ( SDR ) | Orig | SDR |
| 1 | Rewrite the following content as slide presentation bullet points. Focus on summarizing the key arguments and findings clearly and concisely. Use concise phrases that highlight core points. | Rewrite the text as a step-by-step instructional guide, organizing the information into clear sections and ensuring each step provides concise, relevant details on the specified topic. | 0.730 | 0.799 |
| 2 | Rewrite the following text in the style of a Facebook post. Sharing interesting information with followers. You may add light commentary, questions to the audience, or casual phrasing, but keep it natural and human-like. Avoid using emojis, hashtags, or overly dramatic expressions. | Rewrite the text as a Frequently Asked Questions section, transforming the information into an engaging question-and-answer format that encourages reader interaction and maintains a conversational tone. | 0.644 | 0.730 |
| 3 | Adapt the text into a poetic form with vivid metaphors, rhythmic structure, and emotionally evocative language. | Rewrite the text in a lyrical style that transforms factual content into an evocative narrative, using vivid imagery, poetic devices, and rhythmic flow to highlight emotional resonance and thematic cohesion. | 0.538 | 0.674 |
| 4 | Convert the content into a tutorial-style explanation for beginners, using step-by-step instructions, simple analogies, and common misunderstandings. | Rewrite the text as a step-by-step instructional guide, ensuring clear and concise steps that effectively outline key aspects and concepts while maintaining an engaging tone and logical flow throughout. | 0.616 | 0.679 |
| 5 | Rewrite the text as a formal business email, ensuring clarity, professionalism, and a polite tone. | Rewrite the text in the style of an encyclopedia entry, emphasizing clear and concise organization, formal language, and distinct sections that present factual information and key points effectively. | 0.795 | 0.884 |
| 6 | Rewrite the passage as a scientific abstract, including Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Invent at least two numerical values (percentages, sample sizes, or statistical outcomes) to support claims. | Rewrite the text as a Frequently Asked Questions section, transforming the original content into clear, concise questions and answers that emphasize key themes, significant information, and factual accuracy. | 0.600 | 0.678 |
| Method | ArXiv | Wikipedia | ||
| AUC | ASR | AUC | ASR | |
| Recall | 0.516 | 0.532 | 0.528 | 0.545 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.488 | 0.525 | 0.473 | 0.540 |
| Loss | 0.486 | 0.522 | 0.471 | 0.510 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.490 | 0.535 | 0.465 | 0.515 |
| Min-K | 0.536 | 0.510 | 0.486 | 0.515 |
| Method | AUC | ASR |
| Recall | 0.641 | 0.630 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.767 | 0.718 |
| Loss | 0.650 | 0.635 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.808 | 0.760 |
| Min-K | 0.672 | 0.645 |
| Min-K + SDR | 0.784 | 0.734 |
| Method | AUC | ASR |
| Recall | 0.649 | 0.635 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.566 | 0.575 |
| Loss | 0.687 | 0.680 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.751 | 0.725 |
| Min-K | 0.652 | 0.680 |
| Min-K + SDR | 0.713 | 0.690 |
| Method | Mixed Prompt 1 | Mixed Prompt 2 | Mixed Prompt 3 | |||
| AUC | ASR | AUC | ASR | AUC | ASR | |
| Recall | 0.559 | 0.560 | 0.666 | 0.650 | 0.737 | 0.715 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.757 | 0.705 | 0.777 | 0.725 | 0.831 | 0.770 |
| Loss | 0.572 | 0.575 | 0.670 | 0.655 | 0.738 | 0.685 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.767 | 0.705 | 0.796 | 0.750 | 0.834 | 0.785 |
| Min-K | 0.587 | 0.580 | 0.677 | 0.670 | 0.747 | 0.705 |
| Method | Avg AUC | Avg ASR |
| Recall | 0.608 | 0.590 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.722 | 0.694 |
| Loss | 0.599 | 0.597 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.732 | 0.703 |
| Min-K | 0.608 | 0.603 |
| Min-K + SDR | 0.724 | 0.701 |
| AUC | ASR | Time (hh:mm:ss) | Query Budget (GPT4o / mini) | |
| 3 | 0.712 | 0.685 | 02:23:42 | \sim\7/0.8$ |
| 5 | 0.727 | 0.690 | 04:11:33 | \sim\13/1.5$ |
| 15 | 0.747 | 0.705 | 13:27:12 | \sim\39/4.5$ |
| AUC | ASR | Time (hh:mm:ss) | Query Budget (GPT4o / mini) | |
| 3 | 0.715 | 0.670 | 08:21:33 | \sim\10/1$ |
| 7 | 0.731 | 0.695 | 09:13:12 | \sim\10/1$ |
| 9 | 0.718 | 0.695 | 09:35:17 | \sim\10/1$ |
| AUC | ASR | Time (hh:mm:ss) | Query Budget (GPT4o / mini) | |
| 3 | 0.718 | 0.685 | 08:14:33 | \sim\10/1$ |
| 7 | 0.796 | 0.740 | 08:19:29 | \sim\10/1$ |
| 9 | 0.810 | 0.760 | 08:26:45 | \sim\10/1$ |
| 11 | 0.806 | 0.755 | 08:33:34 | \sim\10/1$ |
| AUC | ASR | Time (hh:mm:ss) | Query Budget | |
| 3 | 0.705 | 0.675 | – | – |
| 7 | 0.752 | 0.705 | – | – |
| 9 | 0.742 | 0.695 | – | – |
| Method | AUC | ASR |
| Loss | 0.638 | 0.635 |
| Loss + Reverse Prompt Engineering | 0.682 | 0.663 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.782 | 0.764 |
| Method | Inside TPR@1% | Outside TPR@1% |
| Recall | 0.002 | 0.008 |
| Recall + SDR | 0.106 | 0.062 |
| Loss | 0.047 | 0.000 |
| Loss + SDR | 0.112 | 0.069 |
| Min-K | 0.001 | 0.016 |
| Min-K + SDR | 0.096 | 0.082 |
LLM Auditing
Large language model auditing tests models and deployed systems for bias, safety, privacy, reliability, and provenance using behavioral and internal evidence.
See all 621 papers