Hybrid Program Analysis

Abstract

A hybrid program analysis method includes initiating a static program analysis of an application, generating, by a static program analyzer, a query to a dynamic program analyzer upon determining a code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis, resolving, by the dynamic program analyzer, the query into a set of arguments with which to invoke the code construct of the application, generating, by the dynamic program analyzer, the set of arguments, invoking, by the dynamic program analyzer, the code construct of the application using set of arguments, answering, by the dynamic program analyzer, the query, and continuing the static program analysis of the application.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A hybrid program analysis method comprising:
 initiating a static program analysis of an application;   generating, by a static program analyzer, a query to a dynamic program analyzer upon determining a code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis;   passing control from the static program analyzer to the dynamic program analyzer and initiating a dynamic program analysis of the code construct;   resolving, by the dynamic program analyzer, the query into a set of arguments with which to invoke the code construct of the application;   generating, by the dynamic program analyzer, the set of arguments;   invoking, by the dynamic program analyzer, the code construct of the application using the set of arguments;   answering, by the dynamic program analyzer, the query; and   passing control from the dynamic program analyzer to the static program analyzer and continuing the static program analysis of the application.   
     
     
         2 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the query includes contextual information for the code construct. 
     
     
         3 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis is identified as affecting a precision of the static analysis, and further wherein the code construct is not modeled in an abstraction maintained by the static analysis. 
     
     
         4 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis is identified by the static analysis as a reflective construct. 
     
     
         5 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis is identified by the static analysis as an evaluation of a conditional branch in the application. 
     
     
         6 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the code construct of the application requiring dynamic analysis is identified by the static analysis as external content. 
     
     
         7 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , further comprising resolving, by the dynamic program analyzer, the query with the contextual information into the set of arguments. 
     
     
         8 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the set of arguments includes a command-line argument corresponding to an identified branch of the application. 
     
     
         9 . The hybrid method of  claim 1 , wherein the set of arguments includes a data input corresponding to an identified branch of the application.