MATRIX: Multi-Layer Code Watermarking via Dual-Channel Constrained Parity-Check Encoding

TL;DR

MATRIX is a novel multi-layer code watermarking framework that enhances robustness, coverage, and interpretability for code provenance, using dual-channel encoding and error-correction techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a dual-channel watermarking scheme with constrained parity-check encoding, improving robustness and applicability over existing single-layer methods.

Findings

Achieves 99.20% watermark detection accuracy on Python code.

Maintains minimal code functionality loss (0-0.14%).

Improves robustness by up to 26.67% against attacks.

Abstract

Code Large Language Models (Code LLMs) have revolutionized software development but raised critical concerns regarding code provenance, copyright protection, and security. Existing code watermarking approaches suffer from two fundamental limitations: black-box methods either exhibit detectable syntactic patterns vulnerable to statistical analysis or rely on implicit neural embedding behaviors that weaken interpretability, auditability, and precise control, while white-box methods lack code-aware capabilities that may compromise functionality. Moreover, current single-layer watermarking schemes fail to address increasingly complex provenance requirements such as multi-level attribution and version tracking. We present MATRIX, a novel code watermarking framework that formulates watermark encoding as solving constrained parity-check matrix equations. MATRIX employs dual-channel watermarking through variable naming and semantic-preserving transformations, enhancing watermark coverage across a wider range of code while ensuring mutual backup for robustness. By integrating BCH error-correction codes with solution space diversity, our approach achieves robustness against statistical analysis. Extensive evaluation on Python code generated by multiple Code LLMs demonstrates that MATRIX achieves an average watermark detection accuracy of 99.20% with minimal functionality loss (0-0.14%), improves robustness by 7.70-26.67% against various attacks, and increases watermarking applicability by 2-6x compared with existing methods. These results establish MATRIX as an effective solution for complex code provenance scenarios while balancing among detectability, fidelity, and robustness.