Anonymous No More: Your Coding Style Can Give You Away

itwbennett writes Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Maryland, the University of Goettingen, and Princeton have developed a "code stylometry" that uses natural language processing and machine learning to determine the authors of source code based on coding style. To test how well their code stylometry works, the researchers gathered publicly available data from Google's Code Jam, an annual programming competition that attracts a wide range of programmers, from students to professionals to hobbyists. Looking at data from 250 coders over multiple years, averaging 630 lines of code per author their code stylometry achieved 95% accuracy in identifying the author of anonymous code (PDF). Using a dataset with fewer programmers (30) but more lines of code per person (1,900), the identification accuracy rate reached 97%.

Comments

Can they do it with corporate code?

[msobkow]

Can they do it with corporate code where there are naming and style standards in abundance, and code reviews to ensure those guidelines are followed?

Re:Can they do it with corporate code?

[jellomizer]

Perhaps not as well. If people are following the coding standards for the organization then the code for the most part looks far more similar.

When I am working with a development team, I will tend to adjust my unique style to better match what everyone else is doing. Even if it means doing coding methods that I will normally disagree with.

If the code tends to use a bunch of Goto's instead of Procedures or classes. I will use those GOTO not for my benefit, but for people who will maintain my code later on, so they won't have to change their mindset and debugging strategies to see what the program is doing to do future corrections.

I will go full Object Oriented if the group of people that I am working with do their coding full OO.

My personal style would be more procedural, than OO. Not due to lack of knowledge or not realizing OO advantages and disadvantages. But if I am to code on my own, I code in the way that My Mind handles the requirements, and how I feel would be easier for me to change and fix my code in the future.

I think this method is best for ID based on personal code, vs group corporate code, where a lot of your particular style is hidden.

Bad Coders Can't Be Identified

[TrollstonButterbeans]

If your coding is terrible and very newbie like, they can't single you out since your code is similar to the ocean of other terrible coders.

So if you are a paranoid freak, the best way to ensure your safety and keep the government off your back is to write terrible code.

So you could use this tool to make your code anon.

[Maxo-Texas]

Write a version of pretty-printer that rerenders your code into a different style.

Have a lexicon of mipelled words for each "personality".

Another lexicon of variable names.
a vs inta vs int_a vs x.

Refactoring and unfactoring for subroutines.

Run the comments through google translate and back to english.
ukrainian
japanese
chinese

Synonym and antonym substitution in the comments.

The mind dances at the possibilities to mess with this algorithm.