System and method for analyzing software application in view of entry points

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9703555-B2
Application number	US-201414183940-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2014
Priority date	Mar 28, 2013
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a system and method for performing an analysis of a software application in a computing environment. A receiving module accepts source code of the software application as input data and obtains a list of the entry points. Intermediate representation from the input data is generated in order to construct informative structure for the software application. Uncalled functions in the software application are identified and are considered as entry points. The entry points are wrapped into one entry point and analyzed maintaining calling context of all the entry points.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for performing an analysis of a software application in a computing environment, the method comprising:
receiving, by a processor, a source code of the software application as an input data;
generating, by the processor, an intermediate representation from the input data to construct an informative structure for the software application;
identifying, by the processor a group of the entry points associated with the software application, from the informative structure;
providing, by the processor, a wrapper function to call the entry points identified with one level call depth as a single entry point, based on a parameter list of the entry points in a non-deterministic sequence, wherein the wrapper function is generated by calling the identified group of the entry points by maintaining a calling context at the time of generating the wrapper function and wherein the wrapper function is treated as the single entry point, and wherein the single entry point comprises parameters associated with the entry points considered in the entire software application, wherein the call depth comprises size of call chain, and wherein the calling context is maintained by sequentially executing the group of entry points; and
analyzing, by the processor, the wrapper function corresponding to the single entry point by collecting the parameters associated with the entry points such that the analysis of the single entry point leads to analysis of the entry points identified in the software application, thereby avoiding independent analysis of each entry point in the software application.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the informative structure comprises a call hierarchy with respect to the software application.

3. The method claim 1 , wherein the entry points are called considering the parameter list.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the entry points are called without considering the parameter list.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wrapper function is provided using a default wrapper function and generating an input comprising the entry points with one level call depth.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the wrapper function further comprises uncalled functions in the call hierarchy.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the entry points comprises a super set of entry points.

8. A system for performing an analysis of a software application in
a computing environment, the system comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor, the processor configured to execute programmed instructions stored in the memory, to:
receive a source code of the software application as an input data;
generate an intermediate representation from the input data to construct an informative structure for the software application;
identify a group of the entry points associated with the software application, from the informative structure;
provide a wrapper function to call the entry points identified with one level call depth as a single entry point, based on a parameter list of the entry points in a non-deterministic sequence, wherein the wrapper function is generated by calling the identified group of the entry points by maintaining a calling context at the time of generating the wrapper function and wherein the wrapper function is treated as the single entry point, and wherein the single entry point comprises parameters associated with the entry points considered in the entire software application, wherein the call depth comprises size of call chain, and wherein the calling context is maintained by sequentially executing the group of entry points; and
analyze the wrapper function corresponding to the single entry point by collecting the parameters associated with the entry points such that analysis of single entry point leads to analysis of the entry points identified in the software application, thereby avoiding independent analysis of each entry point in the software application.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the informative structure comprises a call hierarchy with respect to the software application.

10. The system claim 8 , wherein the entry points are called considering a parameter list.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the wrapper function is provided using a default wrapper function with an input comprising the entry points with one level call depth.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the wrapper function comprises uncalled functions in the call hierarchy.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the entry points comprises a super set of entry points.

Assignees

• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Inventors

• Mahamuni Ravi Hanmant
• Srivastava Pragati
• Kumar Shrawan

Classifications

• G06F11/3608

  using formal methods, e.g. model checking, abstract interpretation (theorem proving G06N5/013) · CPC title

• G06F8/433

  Dependency analysis; Data or control flow analysis · CPC title

• G06F8/75 Primary

  Structural analysis for program understanding · CPC title