Combined Static and Dynamic Analysis

Static analysis is usually faster than dynamic analysis but less precise. Therefore it is often desirable to retain information from static analysis for run-time verification, or to compare the results of both techniques. However, this requires writing two programs, which may not act identically under the same conditions. It would be desirable to share the same generic algorithm by static and dynamic analysis. In JNuke, a framework for static and dynamic analysis of Java programs, this has been achieved. By keeping the architecture of static analysis similar to a virtual machine, the only key difference between abstract interpretation and execution remains the nature of program states. In dynamic analysis, concrete states are available, while in static analysis, sets of (abstract) states are considered. Our new analysis is generic because it can re-use the same algorithm in static analysis and dynamic analysis. This paper describes the architecture of such a generic analysis. To our knowledge, JNuke is the first tool that has achieved this integration, which enables static and dynamic analysis to interact in novel ways.