When coding style survives compilation: De-anonymizing programmers from executable binaries

When coding style survives compilation: De-anonymizing programmers from executable binaries

In a recent paper, we showed that coding style is present in source code and can be used to de-anonymize programmers. But what if only compiled binaries are available, rather than source code? Today we are releasing a new paper showing that coding style can survive compilation. Consequently, we can utilize these stylistic fingerprints via machine learning and de-anonymize programmers of executable binaries with high accuracy. This finding is of concern for privacy-aware programmers who would like to remain anonymous. How to represent the coding style in an executable binary. Executable binaries of compiled source code on their own are difficult to analyze because they lack human readable information. Nevertheless reverse engineering methods make it possible to disassemble and decompile executable binaries. After applying such reverse engineering methods to executable…


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