{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7117107331","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041","title":"Simplicity by Obfuscation: Evaluating LLM-Driven Code Transformation with Semantic Elasticity","display_name":"Simplicity by Obfuscation: Evaluating LLM-Driven Code Transformation with Semantic Elasticity","publication_year":2025,"publication_date":"2025-06-17","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7117107331","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3756681.3757041","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041","any_repository_has_fulltext":null},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5121202700","display_name":"Lorenzo De Tomasi","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I26415053","display_name":"University of L'Aquila","ror":"https://ror.org/01j9p1r26","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Lorenzo De Tomasi","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L?Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1136-9629","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L?Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5047553297","display_name":"Claudio Di Sipio","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9872-9542"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I26415053","display_name":"University of L'Aquila","ror":"https://ror.org/01j9p1r26","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Claudio Di Sipio","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9872-9542","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5044201375","display_name":"Antinisca Di Marco","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7214-9945"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I26415053","display_name":"University of L'Aquila","ror":"https://ror.org/01j9p1r26","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Antinisca Di Marco","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7214-9945","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5121127217","display_name":"Phuong T. Nguyen","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I26415053","display_name":"University of L'Aquila","ror":"https://ror.org/01j9p1r26","country_code":"IT","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}],"countries":["IT"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Phuong T. Nguyen","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3666-4162","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I26415053"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":4,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.57373819,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"732","last_page":"738"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11241","display_name":"Advanced Malware Detection Techniques","score":0.8137999773025513,"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"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11241","display_name":"Advanced Malware Detection Techniques","score":0.8137999773025513,"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"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10260","display_name":"Software Engineering Research","score":0.11599999666213989,"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/T11644","display_name":"Spam and Phishing Detection","score":0.007199999876320362,"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"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/python","display_name":"Python (programming language)","score":0.7174000144004822},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/cyclomatic-complexity","display_name":"Cyclomatic complexity","score":0.659600019454956},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/correctness","display_name":"Correctness","score":0.5695000290870667},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/source-code","display_name":"Source code","score":0.5182999968528748},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/obfuscation","display_name":"Obfuscation","score":0.4713999927043915},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/reverse-engineering","display_name":"Reverse engineering","score":0.45590001344680786},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/software","display_name":"Software","score":0.4034999907016754},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/software-quality","display_name":"Software quality","score":0.38339999318122864},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/model-driven-architecture","display_name":"Model-driven architecture","score":0.35760000348091125}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.7587000131607056},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C519991488","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28865","display_name":"Python (programming language)","level":2,"score":0.7174000144004822},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C187303228","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q867330","display_name":"Cyclomatic complexity","level":3,"score":0.659600019454956},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C55439883","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q360812","display_name":"Correctness","level":2,"score":0.5695000290870667},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C199360897","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9143","display_name":"Programming language","level":1,"score":0.5202000141143799},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C43126263","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q128751","display_name":"Source code","level":2,"score":0.5182999968528748},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C80444323","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2878974","display_name":"Theoretical computer science","level":1,"score":0.4945000112056732},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C40305131","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2616305","display_name":"Obfuscation","level":2,"score":0.4713999927043915},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C207850805","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q269608","display_name":"Reverse engineering","level":2,"score":0.45590001344680786},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C115903868","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80993","display_name":"Software engineering","level":1,"score":0.4334000051021576},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777904410","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7397","display_name":"Software","level":2,"score":0.4034999907016754},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C117447612","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1412670","display_name":"Software quality","level":4,"score":0.38339999318122864},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C509989072","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15188241","display_name":"Model-driven architecture","level":4,"score":0.35760000348091125},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776760102","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5139990","display_name":"Code (set theory)","level":3,"score":0.3325999975204468},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C120936955","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2155640","display_name":"Empirical research","level":2,"score":0.3165999948978424},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C529173508","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q638608","display_name":"Software development","level":3,"score":0.3027999997138977},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C82214349","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q657339","display_name":"Software metric","level":5,"score":0.29820001125335693},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2988343187","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1130645","display_name":"Open source software","level":3,"score":0.29760000109672546},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C137287247","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1329550","display_name":"Static program analysis","level":4,"score":0.2971000075340271},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C152752567","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116877","display_name":"Code refactoring","level":3,"score":0.2903999984264374},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C3018397939","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3644502","display_name":"Open source","level":3,"score":0.2827000021934509},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C199519371","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q942695","display_name":"Source lines of code","level":3,"score":0.28220000863075256},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C176217482","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q860554","display_name":"Metric (unit)","level":2,"score":0.2689000070095062},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C124101348","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q172491","display_name":"Data mining","level":1,"score":0.2671999931335449},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C97686452","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7604153","display_name":"Static analysis","level":2,"score":0.2590000033378601},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779791154","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q258040","display_name":"Model transformation","level":3,"score":0.2581999897956848},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C197129107","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1921621","display_name":"Merge (version control)","level":2,"score":0.2563999891281128}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3756681.3757041","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3756681.3757041","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3756681.3757041","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"score":0.6836761832237244,"id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/16","display_name":"Peace, Justice and strong institutions"}],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G4254239254","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"P2022553SL","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320327142","funder_display_name":"Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G8585486834","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"2020W3A5FY","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320327142","funder_display_name":"Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320327142","display_name":"Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation","ror":"https://ror.org/01t9r8c86"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":false,"pdf":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":15,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W1964962870","https://openalex.org/W1967931023","https://openalex.org/W1995875735","https://openalex.org/W2061586458","https://openalex.org/W2146567535","https://openalex.org/W2147005738","https://openalex.org/W2167036677","https://openalex.org/W2532550198","https://openalex.org/W2606250847","https://openalex.org/W2769321642","https://openalex.org/W4236889620","https://openalex.org/W4251477454","https://openalex.org/W4401996408","https://openalex.org/W4402288699","https://openalex.org/W4402665833"],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Code":[0],"obfuscation":[1,168],"is":[2,27,33],"the":[3,40,45,57,75,93],"conversion":[4],"of":[5,39,51,77,96],"original":[6],"source":[7,82],"code":[8,41,83],"into":[9],"a":[10,28,86,144,162],"functionally":[11],"equivalent":[12],"but":[13],"less":[14],"readable":[15],"form,":[16],"aiming":[17],"to":[18,35,79,91],"prevent":[19],"reverse":[20],"engineering":[21],"and":[22,84,138],"intellectual":[23],"property":[24],"theft.":[25],"This":[26,68,159],"challenging":[29],"task":[30],"since":[31],"it":[32],"crucial":[34],"maintain":[36],"functional":[37],"correctness":[38],"while":[42,169],"substantially":[43],"disguising":[44],"input":[46],"code.":[47,98],"The":[48],"recent":[49],"development":[50],"large":[52],"language":[53],"models":[54,151],"(LLMs)":[55],"paves":[56],"way":[58],"for":[59,165,173],"practical":[60],"applications":[61],"in":[62,176],"different":[63],"domains,":[64],"including":[65],"software":[66,177],"engineering.":[67],"work":[69],"performs":[70],"an":[71],"empirical":[72],"study":[73,160],"on":[74],"ability":[76],"LLMs":[78,175],"obfuscate":[80],"Python":[81,111],"introduces":[85],"metric":[87],"(i.e.,":[88],"semantic":[89],"elasticity)":[90],"measure":[92],"quality":[94],"degree":[95],"obfuscated":[97],"We":[99],"experimented":[100],"with":[101,123],"3":[102],"leading":[103],"LLMs,":[104],"i.e.,":[105],"Claude-3.5-Sonnet,":[106],"Gemini-1.5,":[107],"GPT-4-Turbo":[108],"across":[109],"30":[110],"functions":[112],"from":[113],"diverse":[114],"computational":[115],"domains.":[116],"Our":[117],"findings":[118],"reveal":[119],"GPT-4-Turbo\u2019s":[120],"remarkable":[121],"effectiveness":[122],"few-shot":[124],"prompting":[125],"(81%":[126],"pass":[127],"rate":[128],"versus":[129],"29%":[130],"standard":[131],"prompting),":[132],"significantly":[133],"outperforming":[134],"both":[135],"Gemini-1.5":[136],"(39%)":[137],"Claude-3.5-Sonnet":[139],"(30%).":[140],"Notably,":[141],"we":[142],"discovered":[143],"counter-intuitive":[145],"\u201cobfuscation":[146],"by":[147],"simplification\u201d":[148],"phenomenon":[149],"where":[150],"consistently":[152],"reduce":[153],"rather":[154],"than":[155],"increase":[156],"cyclomatic":[157],"complexity.":[158],"provides":[161],"methodological":[163],"framework":[164],"evaluating":[166],"AI-driven":[167],"highlighting":[170],"promising":[171],"directions":[172],"leveraging":[174],"security.":[178]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-06-11T09:08:48.828518","created_date":"2025-12-24T00:00:00"}