Static program analysis: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:04, 8 September 2022

Revision as of 04:50, 5 October 2022

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== Rationale ==

The sophistication of the analysis performed by tools varies from those that only consider the behavior of individual statements and declarations,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Khatiwada|first1=Saket|last2=Tushev|first2=Miroslav|last3=Mahmoud|first3=Anas|date=2018-01-01|title=Just enough semantics: An information theoretic approach for IR-based software bug localization|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0950584916302269|journal=Information and Software Technology|language=en|volume=93|pages=45–57|doi=10.1016/j.infsof.2017.08.012}}</ref> to those that include the complete [[source code]] of a program in their analysis. The uses of the information obtained from the analysis vary from highlighting possible coding errors (e.g., the [[lint programming tool|lint]] tool) to [[formal methods]] that mathematically prove properties about a given program (e.g., its behaviorbehaviour matches that of its specification).

[[Software metric]]s and [[reverse engineering]] can be described as forms of static analysis. Deriving software metrics and static analysis are increasingly deployed together, especially in creation of embedded systems, by defining so-called ''software quality objectives''.<ref>[http://web1.see.asso.fr/erts2010/Site/0ANDGY78/Fichier/PAPIERS%20ERTS%202010/ERTS2010_0035_final.pdf "Software Quality Objectives for Source Code"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604203133/http://web1.see.asso.fr/erts2010/Site/0ANDGY78/Fichier/PAPIERS%20ERTS%202010/ERTS2010_0035_final.pdf |date=2015-06-04 }} (PDF). ''Proceedings: Embedded Real Time Software and Systems 2010 Conference'', ERTS2010.org, Toulouse, France: Patrick Briand, Martin Brochet, Thierry Cambois, Emmanuel Coutenceau, Olivier Guetta, Daniel Mainberte, Frederic Mondot, Patrick Munier, Loic Noury, Philippe Spozio, Frederic Retailleau.</ref>

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Some of the implementation techniques of formal static analysis include:<ref>{{cite web|title=A Survey of Automated Techniques for Formal Software Verification|author=Vijay D’Silva|publisher=Transactions On CAD|date=2008|url=http://www.kroening.com/papers/tcad-sw-2008.pdf|access-date=2015-05-11|display-authors=etal|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074248/http://www.kroening.com/papers/tcad-sw-2008.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref>

* [[Abstract interpretation]], to model the effect that every statement has on the state of an abstract machine (i.e., it 'executes' the software based on the mathematical properties of each statement and declaration). This abstract machine over-approximates the behaviorsbehaviours of the system: the abstract system is thus made simpler to analyze, at the expense of ''incompleteness'' (not every property true of the original system is true of the abstract system). If properly done, though, abstract interpretation is ''sound'' (every property true of the abstract system can be mapped to a true property of the original system).<ref>{{cite web | title=A Formal Methods-based verification approach to medical device software analysis |last=Jones |first=Paul |publisher=Embedded Systems Design |date=2010-02-09 |url=http://embeddeddsp.embedded.com/design/opensource/222700533 |access-date=2010-09-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710185427/http://embeddeddsp.embedded.com/design/opensource/222700533 |archive-date=July 10, 2011 }}</ref>

* [[Data flow analysis|Data-flow analysis]], a lattice-based technique for gathering information about the possible set of values;

* [[Hoare logic]], a [[formal system]] with a set of logical rules for reasoning rigorously about the [[correctness of computer programs]]. There is tool support for some programming languages (e.g., the [[SPARK programming language]] (a subset of [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]]) and the [[Java Modeling Language]]—JML—using [[ESC/Java]] and [[ESC/Java2]], Frama-C WP ([[weakest precondition]]) plugin for the C language extended with ACSL ([[ANSI/ISO C Specification Language]]) ).