Challenges in Anonymizing Source Code: Limitations of Existing Techniques

Anonymizing source code to protect developer identities is a challenging problem that cannot be solved through universal k-anonymity, as it is an incomputable task. A relaxed concept of k-uncertainty provides a practical way to measure the level of anonymity, but existing techniques like code normalization, coding style imitation, and code obfuscation fail to provide reliable protection when the attacker is aware of the anonymization.