Cross-Language Taint Analysis: Generating Caller-Sensitive Native Code Specification for Java

Kan, S; Gao, Y; Zhong, Z; Sui, Y

Cross-Language Taint Analysis: Generating Caller-Sensitive Native Code Specification for Java

Kan, S Gao, Y

Zhong, Z Sui, Y

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Publisher:: IEEE COMPUTER SOC
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2024, 50, (6), pp. 1518-1533
Issue Date:: 2024-06-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Kan, S
dc.contributor.author	Gao, Y https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9524-7038
dc.contributor.author	Zhong, Z
dc.contributor.author	Sui, Y https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9510-6574
dc.date.accessioned	2024-08-21T05:51:53Z
dc.date.available	2024-08-21T05:51:53Z
dc.date.issued	2024-06-01
dc.identifier.citation	IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2024, 50, (6), pp. 1518-1533
dc.identifier.issn	0098-5589
dc.identifier.issn	1939-3520
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/180522
dc.description.abstract	Cross-language programming is a common practice within the software development industry, offering developers a multitude of advantages such as expressiveness, interoperability, and cross-platform compatibility, for developing large-scale applications. As an important example, JNI (Java Native Interface) programming is widely used in diverse scenarios where Java interacts with code written in other programming languages, such as C or C++. Conventional static analysis based on a single programming language faces challenges when it comes to tracing the flow of values across multiple modules that are coded in different programming languages. In this paper, we introduce CSS, a new Caller-Sensitive Specification approach designed to enhance the static taint analysis of Java programs employing JNI to interface with C/C++ code. In contrast to conservative specifications, this approach takes into consideration the calling context of the invoked C/C++ functions (or cross-language context), resulting in more precise and concise specifications for the side effects of native code. Furthermore, CSS specifically enhances the capabilities of Java analyzers, enabling them to perform precise static taint analysis across language boundaries into native code. The experimental results show that CSS can accurately summarize value-flow information and enhance the ability of Java monolingual static analyzers for cross-language taint flow tracking.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	IEEE COMPUTER SOC
dc.relation.ispartof	IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1109/TSE.2024.3392254
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	0803 Computer Software, 0806 Information Systems, 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
dc.subject.classification	Software Engineering
dc.subject.classification	4606 Distributed computing and systems software
dc.subject.classification	4612 Software engineering
dc.title	Cross-Language Taint Analysis: Generating Caller-Sensitive Native Code Specification for Java
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	50
utslib.for	0803 Computer Software
utslib.for	0806 Information Systems
utslib.for	0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Strength - AAII - Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Computer Science
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/All Manual Groups
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/All Manual Groups/Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII)
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/All Manual Groups/Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy (CCSP)
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2024-08-21T05:51:50Z
pubs.issue	6
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	50
utslib.citation.issue	6

Abstract:

Cross-language programming is a common practice within the software development industry, offering developers a multitude of advantages such as expressiveness, interoperability, and cross-platform compatibility, for developing large-scale applications. As an important example, JNI (Java Native Interface) programming is widely used in diverse scenarios where Java interacts with code written in other programming languages, such as C or C++. Conventional static analysis based on a single programming language faces challenges when it comes to tracing the flow of values across multiple modules that are coded in different programming languages. In this paper, we introduce CSS, a new Caller-Sensitive Specification approach designed to enhance the static taint analysis of Java programs employing JNI to interface with C/C++ code. In contrast to conservative specifications, this approach takes into consideration the calling context of the invoked C/C++ functions (or cross-language context), resulting in more precise and concise specifications for the side effects of native code. Furthermore, CSS specifically enhances the capabilities of Java analyzers, enabling them to perform precise static taint analysis across language boundaries into native code. The experimental results show that CSS can accurately summarize value-flow information and enhance the ability of Java monolingual static analyzers for cross-language taint flow tracking.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/180522