International business machines corporation (20240104000). DETERMINING AND PROVIDING REPRESENTATIONS OF PROGRAM FLOW CONTROL simplified abstract

DETERMINING AND PROVIDING REPRESENTATIONS OF PROGRAM FLOW CONTROL

Organization Name

international business machines corporation

Inventor(s)

Bao Zhang of Beijing (CN)

Jin Hong Fu of Beijing (CN)

Peng Hui Jiang of Beijing (CN)

Shi Chong Ma of Beijing (CN)

He Huang of Beijing (CN)

Jia Yu of Beijing (CN)

DETERMINING AND PROVIDING REPRESENTATIONS OF PROGRAM FLOW CONTROL - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20240104000 titled 'DETERMINING AND PROVIDING REPRESENTATIONS OF PROGRAM FLOW CONTROL

Simplified Explanation

The patent application describes a method for improving representations of program flow control by monitoring the execution of binary code on a computer system and analyzing function call patterns and branch patterns exhibited during execution.

• The method monitors the manipulation of call stacks maintained by the computer system.
• It determines function call patterns and branch patterns from the monitored data.
• It identifies function calls, branches, relations between them, and function and variable names from the binary code.
• It provides a representation of program flow control using the identified function calls, branches, relations, and names.

Potential Applications

This technology could be applied in software development tools to provide better visualization of program flow control, aiding in debugging and optimization processes.

Problems Solved

This technology solves the problem of understanding and visualizing complex program flow control in binary code, which can be challenging for developers.

Benefits

The benefits of this technology include improved program understanding, easier debugging, and enhanced optimization of software applications.

Potential Commercial Applications

One potential commercial application of this technology could be in integrated development environments (IDEs) or code analysis tools to assist developers in improving the efficiency and reliability of their software.

Possible Prior Art

One possible prior art for this technology could be static code analysis tools that analyze source code to identify function calls and control flow patterns. However, the innovation in this patent application lies in its ability to analyze binary code directly for improved representations of program flow control.

How does this technology handle obfuscated binary code?

This article does not address how the method deals with obfuscated binary code that may intentionally obfuscate function calls and branches to hinder analysis.

What impact does this technology have on software performance?

The article does not discuss the potential impact of implementing this technology on the performance of the analyzed software applications.

Original Abstract Submitted

determination and provision of improved representations of program flow control are provided by a method that monitors execution of binary code of a program on a computer system. the monitoring includes monitoring manipulation(s) of call stack(s) maintained by the computer system for the execution of the binary code. the method, based on the monitoring, determines function call pattern(s) and branch pattern(s) exhibited by the execution of the binary code. the method identifies, from the binary code and using the determined function call pattern(s) and branch pattern(s), function calls and branches, relations between the function calls and branches, and function and variable names. the method also provides a representation of program flow control of the program using the identified function calls and branches, relations, and function and variable names.