15-819 O: Program Analysis

Spring 2013
MW 1:30-2:50
GHC 4101
12 units
Professor Jonathan Aldrich
Open office: Tuesday 3-4pm, or by appointment

Course Summary

This course provides an overview of the state of the art in program analysis and recent research in the area. Topics include program representations, abstract interpretation, type-based and constraint-based analysis, approaches to interprocedural analysis, counterexample-guided abstraction refinement, extended static checking, and combinations of testing and static analysis. The course will mix theory and practice; students will formalize analyses and prove them correct, but also implement simple analyses and complete a capstone course research project.

This is a graduate-level course targeting Ph.D. students as well as masters and strong undergraduate students who are interested in program analysis. There is no course prerequisite but students should be comfortable with formal definitions.

Supplemental course textbook:

Nielson, Nielson, and Hankin. Principles of Program Analysis (PPA).

Grading (approximate)

50-70% assignments and project
10-20% readings and exercizes
20-35% exam(s)

Policies

Everyone in the class has 7 late days to use at any point during the semester. After late days are used up, the late penalty is 10% per day. I will consider granting additional late days in extenuating circumstances (e.g. illness) after your late days are used up.

Policies

All LaTeX source files are available

Schedule

Date	Topic	Slides/Notes	Reading	Participation	Assignment Due
Jan 14	Introduction to Program Analysis	while-language.pdf	PPA ch. 1 (optional)
Jan 16	Dataflow Analysis and Abstract Interpretation Frameworks	dataflow-frameworks.pdf	PPA ch. 2 (optional)
Jan 21	Martin Luther King Jr. day - no class
Jan 23	Dataflow Analysis Examples	dataflow-examples.pdf
Jan 28	Backwards Analysis, the Worklist Algorithm, and Soot	(same)	PPA ch. 6 (optional)		hw1.pdf
Jan 30	Dataflow Analysis Termination and Correctness	dataflow-correctness.pdf	PPA ch. 4 (optional)
Feb 4	Dataflow correctness, continued				hw2.pdf TestSign.java soot-readme.txt soot-demo.zip
Feb 6	Widening and Collecting Semantics	widening-collecting.pdf
Feb 11	Interprocedural Analysis	interprocedural.pdf			hw3.pdf
Feb 13	Interprocedural Analysis, continued		PPA section 2.5
Feb 18	Pointer Analysis	pointer.pdf
Feb 20	Pointer Analysis, continued	(same)
Feb 25	Control Flow Analysis in Functional Languages	cfa.pdf	PPA ch. 3 (optional)		hw4.pdf
Feb 27	OO Call Graph Construction	callgraph.pdf
Mar 4	Buffer Overflow Analysis		Modular Checking for Buffer Overflows in the Large (required)
Mar 6	Hoare Logic, Weakest Preconditions, and Classic Object Invariant Verification	hoare-logic.pdf			midterm exam due
Mar 11-15	Spring break - no class
Mar 18	No class - instructor travel		Effective Synchronization Removal for Java
Mar 20	No class - instructor travel		Modular Invariants for Layered Object Structures		rq2-synch-invar.pdf
Mar 22	(Friday)				project.pdf
Mar 25	OO Specification and Verification with Dynamic Frames		Specification and Verification of Object-Oriented Software
Mar 27	Verification Condition Generation	dafny-example.txt			rq3-dafny.pdf
Apr 1	Symbolic Execution	symbolic-execution-example.txt	Mixing Type Checking and Symbolic Execution (required) A static analyzer for Finding dynamic programming errors (optional)
Apr 3	Meet at 1pm in GHC 7501: Static Analysis of Numerical Programs		Static Analysis of Finite Precision Computations		rq4.pdf
Apr 8	Concolic Testing		DART, CUTE, or others		project checkpoint 1
Apr 10	Counterexample-Guided Abstraction Refinement		SLAM or BLAST		RQ
Apr 15	Analysis in Practice at Microsoft and eBay		Understanding the value of program analysis tools		RQ
Apr 17	Interprocedural Analysis via Context-Free Reachability		Precise Interprocedural Dataflow Analysis via Graph Reachability		RQ
Apr 22	no class				project checkpoint 2
Apr 24	Separation Logic
Apr 29	Concurrency Assurance with Fluid		Assuring and Evolving Concurrent Programs: Annotations and Policy		RQ
May 1	Satisfiability Modulo Theories
May 6	9:30-11:00am Project presentations				project presentations
May 13	Project deliverables due				project deliverables

Additional potential topics

Shape Analysis
Dynamic Analysis for Race Conditions
Emerging Verification Approaches
Dynamically Inferring Specifications
Bi-Abduction (Distefano)
Model Checking and Data-Flow Analysis
Program Representations: SSA form and the PDG
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