Patent ID: 7089537

Claim:
A method for performing path-sensitive value flow analysis on an abstract program, the abstract program having a plurality of statements that are derived from complex statements coded within a software program, the method comprising: tracking a concrete state and value alias information for each statement along each relevant path in the abstract program; storing the concrete state and value alias information for each statement along each relevant path in a symbolic store, the symbolic store storing a plurality of symbolic states, each symbolic state comprising the concrete state at a specific location along a specific relevant path in the abstract program and the value alias information at the specific location along the specific relevant path, the value alias information being associated with a designated value that is being analyzed; upon encountering a decisional statement, proceeding individually along each decision path associated with the decisional statement as long as the concrete state in the symbolic state being processed at the decisional statement reflects that the decision path is relevant; and merging two symbolic states in the symbolic store if the two symbolic states exist for the same specific location in the abstract program and if the value alias information in the two symbolic states are identical.