Multimodal Generative Engine Optimization: Rank Manipulation for Vision-Language Model Rankers

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2601.12263v1
• Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 04:58:28 GMT
• Title: Multimodal Generative Engine Optimization: Rank Manipulation for Vision-Language Model Rankers
• Authors: Yixuan Du, Chenxiao Yu, Haoyan Xu, Ziyi Wang, Yue Zhao, Xiyang Hu,
• Abstract summary: Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are rapidly replacing unimodal encoders in modern retrieval and recommendation systems.<n>We present a novel adversarial framework that enables a malicious actor to unfairly promote a target product.<n>Experiments on real-world datasets using state-of-the-art models demonstrate that our coordinated attack significantly outperforms text-only and image-only baselines.
• Score: 9.543953966473076
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are rapidly replacing unimodal encoders in modern retrieval and recommendation systems. While their capabilities are well-documented, their robustness against adversarial manipulation in competitive ranking scenarios remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we uncover a critical vulnerability in VLM-based product search: multimodal ranking attacks. We present Multimodal Generative Engine Optimization (MGEO), a novel adversarial framework that enables a malicious actor to unfairly promote a target product by jointly optimizing imperceptible image perturbations and fluent textual suffixes. Unlike existing attacks that treat modalities in isolation, MGEO employs an alternating gradient-based optimization strategy to exploit the deep cross-modal coupling within the VLM. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets using state-of-the-art models demonstrate that our coordinated attack significantly outperforms text-only and image-only baselines. These findings reveal that multimodal synergy, typically a strength of VLMs, can be weaponized to compromise the integrity of search rankings without triggering conventional content filters.

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