Revamping JavaScript static analysis via localization and remediation of root causes of imprecision

Abstract

Static analysis is challenged by the dynamic language constructs of JavaScript which often lead to unacceptable performance and/or precision results. We describe an approach that focuses on improving the practicality and accuracy of points-to analysis and call graph construction for JavaScript programs. The approach first identifies program constructs which are sources of imprecision (i.e., root causes) through monitoring the static analysis process. We then examine and suggest specific context-sensitive analyses to apply. Our technique is able to to find that the root causes comprise less than 2% of the functions in JavaScript library applications. Moreover, the specialized analysis derived by our approach finishes within a few seconds, even on programs which can not complete within 10 minutes with the original analysis.