anonymize-check

Anonymize check

Script

scripts/anon_check.py (standard library only; uses PyMuPDF or poppler if present).

# 1. keep a private deny-list (never commit a filled-in one publicly)
cp skills/anonymize-check/scripts/denylist.example.txt paper/.denylist.txt   # then edit

# 2. scan sources, the built PDF, the supplementary zip, the artifact directory
python3 skills/anonymize-check/scripts/anon_check.py paper/ paper/main.pdf \
        supplementary.zip artifact/ --deny-file paper/.denylist.txt \
        --allow-url 'github\.com/<third-party-org>/'

# 3. self-test (synthetic sample; must print PASS)
python3 skills/anonymize-check/scripts/anon_check.py --selftest

Exit status 1 if any HIGH finding. --json for machine-readable output, --min-severity MEDIUM to reduce noise.

What it flags

severity	finding
HIGH	deny-list term in text/code/filename/PDF bytes; e-mail; local path (/home/<u>, /Users/<u>, C:\Users\<u>); non-anonymous \author/\institute/\thanks/\email; acknowledgements section; PDF Author metadata; embedded figure path (PTEX.FileName) containing a username or deny term; .git inside an archive; URL containing a deny term
MEDIUM	first-person self-citation ("our previous work", "we previously showed", "our paper~\cite"); personal code-host URL (github/gitlab/.github.io/...) not in the allow-list; funding statement; PDF Title/Subject/Keywords metadata; .git directory in an artifact folder; hits inside comments (downgraded one level)
LOW	deny term inside .bib (allowed: self-citations stay in the bibliography with real authors, referred to in the third person); "camera-ready"/"de-anonymised" wording; Creator/Producer metadata (informational)

Manual checks the script cannot do

• Self-citations are written in the third person ("Example et al. [12] showed") and critiqued like any other work; not omitted, not "anonymised" in the bib.
• No "blinded" citation that is obviously the authors' own when a third-person citation would do (follow the venue's policy; IACR generally prefers third person).
• Supplementary/artifact README avoids "our prior paper", "same codebase as", "inherited from our earlier implementation".
• Anonymous mirrors (e.g. anonymous.4open.science) are refreshed after the last push, and each file URL returns HTTP 200 (a private source repository can make the mirror return 403). Check with curl -sI.
• Figures: no screenshots with usernames, terminal prompts, or window titles.
• Experiment logs in the artifact: hostnames, IPs, usernames stripped.
• Overleaf/Git history is not shared with reviewers.
• Submission form fields (conflicts, abstract) are separate from the PDF; the PDF itself must be anonymous.

Remediation snippets

% Empty PDF metadata (hyperref)
\hypersetup{pdfauthor={},pdftitle={},pdfsubject={},pdfkeywords={},pdfcreator={},pdfproducer={}}
% Avoid embedding figure source paths (pdfTeX)
\pdfsuppressptexinfo=-1   % place in the preamble (pdfTeX >= 1.40.15)

# strip metadata from a finished PDF (qpdf/exiftool if available)
exiftool -all:all= -overwrite_original main.pdf && qpdf --linearize main.pdf main_clean.pdf
# zip an artifact without VCS data
git archive --format=zip -o artifact.zip HEAD   # or: zip -r artifact.zip artifact -x '*.git*'

Record the final clean run (command + summary line + PDF sha256) in SUBMISSION.md.