One Computer Science MSc thesis to be presented on 23 February

Friday, 23 February there will be a master thesis presentation in Computer Science at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering.

The presentation will take place in E:2405 (Glasburen).

Note to potential opponents: Register as an opponent to the presentation of your choice by sending an email to the examiner for that presentation (firstname.lastname@cs.lth.se. Do not forget to specify the presentation you register for! Note that the number of opponents may be limited (often to two), so you might be forced to choose another presentation if you register too late. Registrations are individual, just as the oppositions are! More instructions are found on this page.)

11:15-12:00 in E:2405 (Glasburen)

Presenter: Max Soller 
Title: A simplistic Information Flow Analysis with Reference Attribute Grammars
Examiner: Niklas Fors
Supervisor: Görel Hedin (LTH)

Information flow analysis is a concept that aims to analyze how information propagates in a program with the goal of detecting program points where sensitive information might leak. This thesis introduces a static information flow analysis for Java, inspired by the JFlow language. A key component in JFlow and information flow analysis, is the fact that variables and objects are labeled with something called Security labels. These labels depict what kind of information variables and objects contain and determine what kind of information flows are allowed in the program. Unlike JFlow, our approach utilizes Java Annotations instead of extending Java syntax, aiming for an easier implementation and usage. The analysis employs intraprocedural Control Flow Graphs and extends to basic interprocedural analysis using a Call Graph. Key questions explored in-clude what subset of JFlow that can be implemented with annotations, how Reference Attribute Grammars (RAGs) can be employed for intraprocedural and basic interprocedural analysis, and how the analysis could be further improved. The thesis contributes a foundation for future research in information flow analysis as well as showcasing some of the capabilities and limitations of RAGs.

Link to popular science summary: To be uploaded