SrDetection: A Self-Referential Framework for Data Leakage Detection in Code Large Language Models

Abstract: Evaluating code LLMs (Code LLMs) requires reliable detection of data leakage, where benchmark performance is artificially inflated by exposure to benchmark data during pre-training. Existing approaches either assume access to proprietary training corpora, rely on brittle heuristics such as timestamp filtering, or use external reference sets with manually tuned, non-generalizable thresholds. To address these limitations, we introduce \textbf{SrDetection}, a unified \textbf{s}elf-\textbf{r}eferential leakage detection framework for both gray-box (access to model logits) and black-box (access to model outputs) settings. SrDetection generates semantically equivalent variants of a benchmark sample and detects leakage by contrasting the model's behavior on the original versus its variants, flagging cases where the original is disproportionately easier for the model. We further design a controlled leakage detection testbed and evaluate SrDetection in this environment. Across different models and training stages, SrDetection improves average F1 by 21.52 points in the gray-box setting and 14.46 points in the black-box setting over strong baselines, demonstrating robust, threshold-independent leakage detection. Finally, a gray-box study of 15 widely used Code LLMs on four popular benchmarks reveals benchmark-specific leakage patterns beyond prior overlap-based analyses\footnote{\footnotesize Source code and data are available at https://github.com/SMinL/SrDetectionCode