DepTaint: A static taint analysis method based on program dependence

Since static taint analysis is performed prior to execution by considering all possible execution paths, it can discover potential security issues before the program running. Currently, many taint analysis tools pay more attention to data dependence in the program. Whereas implicit flow analysis based on control dependence is generally not considered owning to its complexity. Therefore, this paper presents a static taint analysis method named DepTaint, which expands the static checkers of LLVM, focuses on program dependence including data and control dependence in the program. DepTaint analyzes the taint variables propagated along explicit flows and implicit flows, especially commendably handles the under-taint in explicit flow analysis. Our evaluations demonstrate that, for 8 programs containing data and control dependence and 8 programs injected different common vulnerabilities (i.e., array bounds, double free, format string vulnerability, heap overflow, integer overflow, stack overflow, and UAF), DepTaint significantly outperforms LLVM's static checker both at marking taint variables and achieving more finegrained taint propagation paths. Specially, for the programs containing branch selection and loop structure, DepTaint on average marks 2X and 3.6X taint variables than LLVM's static checker.