A method for profiling network traffic of a network, including defining a set of features each corresponding to a set of pre-determined bit positions for selecting a pre-determined number of data bits from each flow in a flow set generated by a network application to form a feature value assigned to the feature for the each flow, identifying the feature as a deterministic feature based on a frequency of occurrence of the feature value, extracting a set of paths from the flow set based on a number of deterministic features, generating a state machine based on the set of paths, and analyzing a new flow associated with a server in the network to determine the server as executing the network application.