Dagstuhl-Seminar — Sound Static Program Analysis in Modern Software Engineering

Sound static program analysis (SSPA) can tackle real-world programs and effectively prove, for instance, that they do not expose some runtime errors and security vulnerabilities. Over the past half-century, many theories, all amenable to abstract interpretation, have been proposed and applied in practice: program analysis, program verification through SMT solvers, type systems, and model checking are just the most notable examples. SSPA has had a great impact on the analysis of safety-critical embedded software (where a single bug might cause catastrophic effects on the physical world) but has achieved so far limited interest in desktop applications (where bugs do not have relevant consequences). An exception is the revival of SSPA in Web applications, where a security vulnerability (such as a SQL injection) within them might have a relevant business impact. More recent developments, such as the Internet of Things, in the past decade, have bridged the realm of embedded software with Web applications.