Accurate Interprocedural Null-Dereference Analysis for Java

Null dereference is a commonly occurring defect in Java programs, and many static-analysis tools identify such defects. However, most of the existing tools perform a limited interprocedural analysis. In this paper, we present an interprocedural path-sensitive and context-sensitive analysis for identifying null dereferences. Starting at a dereference statement, our approach performs a backward demanddriven, path-sensitive analysis to identify true and false null-propagation paths precisely. The backward demanddriven analysis avoids an exhaustive program exploration that permits the analysis to scale to large programs. We present the results of empirical studies conducted using large open-source and commercial products. Our results show that: (1) our approach detects less false positives, and significantly more interprocedural true positives, than other commonly used tools; (2) the analysis scales to large subjects; and (3) the identified defects are often fixed in subsequent releases, ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Mangala Gowri Nanda, Saurabh Sinha
• Keywords: ICSE 2009, Software Engineering