The significance of user-defined identifiers in Java source code authorship identification

Frantzeskou, G; MacDonell, SG; Stamatatos, E; Georgiou, S; Gritzalis, S

Frantzeskou, G; MacDonell, SG; Stamatatos, E; Georgiou, S; Gritzalis, S

Abstract

When writing source code, programmers have varying levels of freedom when it comes to the creation and use of identifiers. Do they habitually use the same identifiers, names that are different to those used by others? Is it then possible to tell who the author of a piece of code is by examining these identifiers?

Keywords

Program Identifiers; Java; Source code; N-gram; Authorship Identification

Date

2011

Source

International Journal of Computer Systems Science and Engineering, vol.26(2), pp.139 - 148

Item Type

Journal Article

Publisher

CRL Publishing Ltd

Publisher's Version

http://www.crlpublishing.co.uk/journal.asp?j=csse&s=Vol%2026%202011

Rights Statement

Before publication, authors are requested to assign copyright to CRL Publishing Ltd. This allows CRL Publishing to sanction photocopying, and to authorize the reprinting of issues or volumes according to demand. Authors' traditional rights will not be jeopardized by assigning Copyright in this way, as they retain the right to reuse the material following publication, and to veto third-party publication.