pathfinder

CFL-R-based software analysis tool

Reference:

If you use Pathfinder, please, cite this article:

Н. Н. Ефанов, А. Р. Федоров, Э. В. Шамбер, А. А. Щербаков, А. П. Елесина Pathfinder: статический анализатор программ на базе решения задач достижимости на графах в КС-ограничениях // Труды МФТИ, Том 13, №4, 2021, сс 14-29. DOI:10.53815/20726759_2021_13_4_14

Or:

Efanov, N., Fedorov, A.R., Shamber, E.V., Shcherbakov, A.A., & Elesina, A.P. (2021). Pathfinder: software static analyzer based on solving the graph reachability problem with CF constraints. Proceedings of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Vol. 13, 4 pp. 14-29. (In Russian) DOI:10.53815/20726759_2021_13_4_14

Reports, talks:

Apr. 2022:

N. Efanov, S. Efimov // Pathfinder: overview of the tool, approach & applications. YC Seminar, SPbSU: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bEjzNo4M-ER4jznoXGKloXfuwJeKLXC2/view

N. Efanov, S. Efimov // CFL-R approach for code static analysis. Techtalk on KMTT Seminar, MIPT: https://youtu.be/EDp_dERI1GM

Jun. 2022:

S. Efimov // Static analysis of cycles vectorization based on CFL-reachability. Bachelor degree defence, MIPT, KMTT Dept.

ResearchGate:

1. Modern formal languages theory based methods for software static analysis

Requirements

• GCC 9.3.0
• CMAKE 3.16.3
• PYTHON 3.7 (only for Lexer and Callgrind-front analysis)
• CLANG 10.0.0 (only for llvm analysis)
• LLVM 10.0.0 (only for llvm analysis)
• PYTHON 2.7.18 (only for llvm analysis)

Build

cd front
cmake ./
make

Run [in demo mode, with simplified grammar rules]

In [path to file] you need to specify the path to the file pre-compiled
with gcc file_name -fdump-tree-cfg-graph
If you omit it, the program will ask you to specify it via stdin

When running bash run.sh it starts to work with code analysis.
For a test it is needed to write examples/test1.c (if you are in front/gcc-cfg-utils and not using cmd args),
then write grammar rules (first: number of rules, then rules)
For example:

5 
S AB
S AR
R SB
A a
B b

Then to put letters on edges.

It produces file build/core, which is core executable of CFL-R analysis and
can be called by frontend (see example in front/callgrind-front).

If you want to run the unit-tests you need write:

bash run.sh -test

It is also supported file input method
To use it write:

bash run.sh -file [path to file] (For example: input/example.in)

Supported flags

• -cmd the next argument should be the path to analyzed file
• -file the next argument should be the path to input file
• -front-only to not run the core file, only to generate data/graph
• -thin to present data/graph string by string (thin-bb version)
• -fast to use fast.cpp alghorithm
• -slow to use slow.cpp alghorithm
• -test to run unit-tests
• -o to save front output into specific file (specify path into next argument)
• -ssa to represent input graph in SSA form

Examples

•   bash run.sh
    gcc-cfg-utils/examples/test1.c
    1
    S a
    a a b b a a a
  

•   bash run.sh -cmd gcc-cfg-utils/examples/test1.c
    1
    S a
    a a b b a a a
  

•   bash run.sh -file gcc-cfg-utils/input/example.in
  

Run [in general mode]

The terms in grammar rules can be spaced strings, just pass -spaced_rhs as option for core. For example:

• StrTerm StrTermRhs1 StrTermRhs2

LLVM IR

Also it is supported llvm compilers
To analyze LLVM IR bitcode you should switch to LLVM branch:

git checkout llvm