Abstract Domains for Type Juggling

Web scripting languages, such as PHP and JavaScript, provide a wide range of dynamic features that make them both flexible and error-prone. In order to prevent bugs in web applications, there is a sore need for powerful static analysis tools. In this paper, we investigate how Abstract Interpretation may be leveraged to provide a precise value analysis providing rich typing information that can be a useful component for such tools. In particular, we define the formal semantics for a core of PHP that illustrates type juggling, the implicit type conversions typical of PHP, and investigate the design of abstract domains and operations that, while still scalable, are expressive enough to cope with type juggling. We believe that our approach can also be applied to other languages with implicit type conversions. © 2017 The Author(s)