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Reachability analysis of program variables

Authors:

Đurica Nikolić and

Fausto SpotoAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), Volume 35, Issue 4

Article No.: 14, Pages 1 - 68

https://doi.org/10.1145/2529990

Published: 03 January 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Reachability from a program variable v to a program variable w states that from v, it is possible to follow a path of memory locations that leads to the object bound to w. We present a new abstract domain for the static analysis of possible reachability between program variables or, equivalently, definite unreachability between them. This information is important for improving the precision of other static analyses, such as side-effects, field initialization, cyclicity and path-length analysis, as well as more complex analyses built upon them, such as nullness and termination analysis. We define and prove correct our reachability analysis for Java bytecode, defined as a constraint-based analysis, where the constraint is a graph whose nodes are the program points and whose arcs propagate reachability information in accordance to the abstract semantics of each bytecode instruction. For each program point p, our reachability analysis produces an overapproximation of the ordered pairs of variables 〈v, w〉 such that v might reach w at p. Seen the other way around, if a pair 〈v, w〉 is not present in the overapproximation at p, then v definitely does not reach w at p. We have implemented the analysis inside the Julia static analyzer. Our experiments of analysis of nontrivial Java and Android programs show the improvement of precision due to the presence of reachability information. Moreover, reachability analysis actually reduces the overall cost of nullness and termination analysis.

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Cited By

Yan QLi YWu YZhou J(2021) DFlow : A Data Flow Analysis Tool for C/C++ IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering10.1002/tee.2346716:12(1635-1641)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1002/tee.23467
Spoto FBurato EErnst MFerrara PLovato AMacedonio DSpiridon C(2019)Static Identification of Injection Attacks in JavaACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/333237141:3(1-58)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3332371
Zanardini D(2018)Field-sensitive sharingJournal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming10.1016/j.jlamp.2017.10.00595(103-127)Online publication date: Feb-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlamp.2017.10.005
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Index Terms

Reachability analysis of program variables
1. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program reasoning
      1. Program analysis
    2. Program semantics

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cover image ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems Volume 35, Issue 4

December 2013

169 pages

ISSN:0164-0925

EISSN:1558-4593

DOI:10.1145/2560142

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 03 January 2014

Accepted: 01 August 2013

Revised: 01 January 2013

Received: 01 May 2012

Published in TOPLAS Volume 35, Issue 4

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Cited By

Yan QLi YWu YZhou J(2021) DFlow : A Data Flow Analysis Tool for C/C++ IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering10.1002/tee.2346716:12(1635-1641)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1002/tee.23467
Spoto FBurato EErnst MFerrara PLovato AMacedonio DSpiridon C(2019)Static Identification of Injection Attacks in JavaACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/333237141:3(1-58)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3332371
Zanardini D(2018)Field-sensitive sharingJournal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming10.1016/j.jlamp.2017.10.00595(103-127)Online publication date: Feb-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlamp.2017.10.005
Payet ÉSpoto F(2018)Checking Array Bounds by Abstract Interpretation and Symbolic ExpressionsAutomated Reasoning10.1007/978-3-319-94205-6_46(706-722)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94205-6_46
Spoto F(2016)The Julia Static Analyzer for JavaStatic Analysis10.1007/978-3-662-53413-7_3(39-57)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53413-7_3
Schmeelk SYang JAho ATrien JProwell SBridges RGoodall J(2015)Android Malware Static Analysis TechniquesProceedings of the 10th Annual Cyber and Information Security Research Conference10.1145/2746266.2746271(1-8)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2746266.2746271
Galeotti JFuria CMay EFraser GZeller A(2015)Inferring Loop Invariants by Mutation, Dynamic Analysis, and Static CheckingIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2015.243168841:10(1019-1037)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2015.2431688
Ernst MLovato AMacedonio DSpiridon CSpoto F(2015)Boolean Formulas for the Static Identification of Injection Attacks in JavaProceedings of the 20th International Conference on Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Reasoning - Volume 945010.1007/978-3-662-48899-7_10(130-145)Online publication date: 24-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-662-48899-7_10
Zanardini DGenaim S(2014)Inference of Field-Sensitive Reachability and CyclicityACM Transactions on Computational Logic10.1145/262947815:4(1-41)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2629478

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