{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4401577050","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3688839","title":"CARL: Unsupervised Code-Based Adversarial Attacks for Programming Language Models via Reinforcement Learning","display_name":"CARL: Unsupervised Code-Based Adversarial Attacks for Programming Language Models via Reinforcement Learning","publication_year":2024,"publication_date":"2024-08-14","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4401577050","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3688839"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3688839","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3688839","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3688839","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S142627899","display_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","issn_l":"1049-331X","issn":["1049-331X","1557-7392"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319798","host_organization_name":"Association for Computing Machinery","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319798"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for Computing Machinery"],"type":"journal"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","raw_type":"journal-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"bronze","oa_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3688839","any_repository_has_fulltext":false},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5084159654","display_name":"Kaichun Yao","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2093-1473"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I19820366","display_name":"Chinese Academy of Sciences","ror":"https://ror.org/034t30j35","country_code":"CN","type":"government","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Kaichun Yao","raw_affiliation_strings":["Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2093-1473","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100653158","display_name":"Hao Wang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9274-2698"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210165038","display_name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","ror":"https://ror.org/05qbk4x57","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210165038"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hao Wang","raw_affiliation_strings":["School of Computer Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","School of Computer Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9274-2698","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210165038"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"School of Computer Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210165038"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5102883290","display_name":"Chuan Qin","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5354-8630"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I99065089","display_name":"Tsinghua University","ror":"https://ror.org/03cve4549","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chuan Qin","raw_affiliation_strings":["PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China","PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5354-8630","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I99065089"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5049015446","display_name":"Hengshu Zhu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4570-643X"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I19820366","display_name":"Chinese Academy of Sciences","ror":"https://ror.org/034t30j35","country_code":"CN","type":"government","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210108629","display_name":"Computer Network Information Center","ror":"https://ror.org/01s0wyf50","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210108629"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hengshu Zhu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4570-643X","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210108629"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210108629"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101053493","display_name":"Yanjun Wu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1823-0459"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I19820366","display_name":"Chinese Academy of Sciences","ror":"https://ror.org/034t30j35","country_code":"CN","type":"government","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yanjun Wu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1823-0459","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100337167","display_name":"Libo Zhang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7153-6465"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I19820366","display_name":"Chinese Academy of Sciences","ror":"https://ror.org/034t30j35","country_code":"CN","type":"government","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210128818","display_name":"Institute of Software","ror":"https://ror.org/033dfsn42","country_code":"CN","type":"facility","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Libo Zhang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences, China"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7153-6465","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I19820366","https://openalex.org/I4210128818"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":5,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.9737,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":4,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.79327191,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":95,"max":98},"biblio":{"volume":"34","issue":"1","first_page":"1","last_page":"32"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11689","display_name":"Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning","score":0.9988999962806702,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11689","display_name":"Adversarial Robustness in Machine Learning","score":0.9988999962806702,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10260","display_name":"Software Engineering Research","score":0.9883999824523926,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11241","display_name":"Advanced Malware Detection Techniques","score":0.9873999953269958,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1711","display_name":"Signal Processing"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.8668099641799927},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/adversarial-system","display_name":"Adversarial system","score":0.6752994656562805},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/reinforcement-learning","display_name":"Reinforcement learning","score":0.6481701731681824},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/artificial-intelligence","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","score":0.5909850597381592},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/machine-learning","display_name":"Machine learning","score":0.5495594143867493},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/leverage","display_name":"Leverage (statistics)","score":0.44546806812286377}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.8668099641799927},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C37736160","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1801315","display_name":"Adversarial system","level":2,"score":0.6752994656562805},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C97541855","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q830687","display_name":"Reinforcement learning","level":2,"score":0.6481701731681824},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.5909850597381592},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C119857082","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2539","display_name":"Machine learning","level":1,"score":0.5495594143867493},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C153083717","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6535263","display_name":"Leverage (statistics)","level":2,"score":0.44546806812286377}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3688839","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3688839","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3688839","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S142627899","display_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","issn_l":"1049-331X","issn":["1049-331X","1557-7392"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319798","host_organization_name":"Association for Computing Machinery","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319798"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for Computing Machinery"],"type":"journal"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","raw_type":"journal-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3688839","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3688839","pdf_url":"https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3688839","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S142627899","display_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","issn_l":"1049-331X","issn":["1049-331X","1557-7392"],"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319798","host_organization_name":"Association for Computing Machinery","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319798"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for Computing Machinery"],"type":"journal"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology","raw_type":"journal-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"score":0.7200000286102295,"display_name":"Peace, Justice and strong institutions","id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/16"}],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G2036621943","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"2024M753357 and 2024M750154","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321543","funder_display_name":"China Postdoctoral Science Foundation"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321543","display_name":"China Postdoctoral Science Foundation","ror":"https://ror.org/0426zh255"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":false,"pdf":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4401577050.pdf"},"referenced_works_count":40,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W1593271688","https://openalex.org/W2056760934","https://openalex.org/W2119717200","https://openalex.org/W2489487449","https://openalex.org/W2599674900","https://openalex.org/W2790702239","https://openalex.org/W2799194071","https://openalex.org/W2947469743","https://openalex.org/W2949128310","https://openalex.org/W2962718684","https://openalex.org/W2962818281","https://openalex.org/W2972082064","https://openalex.org/W2981852735","https://openalex.org/W2996851481","https://openalex.org/W2997451752","https://openalex.org/W3034999214","https://openalex.org/W3098605233","https://openalex.org/W3101449015","https://openalex.org/W3104423855","https://openalex.org/W3109966548","https://openalex.org/W3170092793","https://openalex.org/W3198685994","https://openalex.org/W3199249334","https://openalex.org/W3209179304","https://openalex.org/W4210499321","https://openalex.org/W4210746702","https://openalex.org/W4210772589","https://openalex.org/W4220722393","https://openalex.org/W4221166942","https://openalex.org/W4247880210","https://openalex.org/W4285600327","https://openalex.org/W4287265459","https://openalex.org/W4288089799","https://openalex.org/W4315706637","https://openalex.org/W4382317573","https://openalex.org/W4384918448","https://openalex.org/W4385562549","https://openalex.org/W4385567900","https://openalex.org/W4386185625","https://openalex.org/W4403791697"],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W2768698792","https://openalex.org/W2961085424","https://openalex.org/W4306674287","https://openalex.org/W3046775127","https://openalex.org/W3107602296","https://openalex.org/W4394896187","https://openalex.org/W3170094116","https://openalex.org/W4386462264","https://openalex.org/W4364306694","https://openalex.org/W4312192474"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Code":[0],"based":[1],"adversarial":[2,47,66,127],"attacks":[3,69],"play":[4],"a":[5,132,137,155,164],"crucial":[6],"role":[7],"in":[8,24],"revealing":[9],"vulnerabilities":[10,59],"of":[11,34,60,65,166,177],"software":[12,27,35],"system.":[13],"Recently,":[14],"pre-trained":[15],"programming":[16,133,190],"language":[17,134],"models":[18,43,77],"(PLMs)":[19],"have":[20],"demonstrated":[21],"remarkable":[22],"success":[23,209],"various":[25,189],"significant":[26],"engineering":[28],"tasks,":[29,187],"progressively":[30],"transforming":[31],"the":[32,56,61,93,152,175,206],"paradigm":[33],"development.":[36],"Despite":[37],"their":[38],"impressive":[39],"capabilities,":[40],"these":[41,110],"powerful":[42],"are":[44],"vulnerable":[45],"to":[46,53,78,103,109,124,143,173],"attacks.":[48,67],"Therefore,":[49],"it":[50],"is":[51],"necessary":[52],"carefully":[54],"investigate":[55],"robustness":[57],"and":[58,136,147,184,192,214,223],"PLMs":[62,86,215],"by":[63],"means":[64],"Adversarial":[68],"entail":[70],"imperceptible":[71,126],"input":[72],"modifications":[73],"that":[74,120,198],"cause":[75],"target":[76],"make":[79],"incorrect":[80],"predictions.":[81],"Existing":[82],"approaches":[83],"for":[84],"attacking":[85],"often":[87],"employ":[88],"either":[89],"identifier":[90],"renaming":[91],"or":[92,101],"greedy":[94],"algorithm,":[95],"which":[96],"may":[97],"yield":[98],"sub-optimal":[99],"performance":[100],"lead":[102],"high":[104,218],"inference":[105],"times.":[106],"In":[107,141],"response":[108],"limitations,":[111],"we":[112,150],"propose":[113],"CARL,":[114],"an":[115],"unsupervised":[116],"black-box":[117],"attack":[118,203,208,219],"model":[119],"leverages":[121],"reinforcement":[122],"learning":[123],"generate":[125],"examples.":[128],"Specifically,":[129],"CARL":[130,178,199],"comprises":[131],"encoder":[135],"perturbation":[138],"prediction":[139],"layer.":[140],"order":[142],"achieve":[144],"more":[145],"effective":[146],"efficient":[148],"attack,":[149],"cast":[151],"task":[153],"as":[154],"sequence":[156],"decision-making":[157],"process,":[158],"optimizing":[159],"through":[160],"policy":[161],"gradient":[162],"with":[163],"suite":[165],"reward":[167],"functions.":[168],"We":[169],"conduct":[170],"extensive":[171],"experiments":[172],"validate":[174],"effectiveness":[176],"on":[179],"code":[180,182,185,202],"summarization,":[181],"translation,":[183],"refinement":[186],"covering":[188],"languages":[191],"PLMs.":[193],"The":[194],"experimental":[195],"results":[196],"demonstrate":[197],"surpasses":[200],"state-of-the-art":[201],"models,":[204],"achieving":[205],"highest":[207],"rate":[210],"across":[211],"multiple":[212],"tasks":[213],"while":[216],"maintaining":[217],"efficiency,":[220],"imperceptibility,":[221],"consistency,":[222],"fluency.":[224]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":2},{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":2}],"updated_date":"2026-07-22T07:51:19.307946","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}
