First version of documentation

.github/workflows/doc_deployment.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+name: Documentation Deployment
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - develop
+    tags:
+      - '*'
+
+concurrency:
+  group: gh-pages
+
+jobs:
+  # On push/merge to develop: Deploy the current doc as default/latest
+  deploy-doc-snapshots:
+    name: Deploy Snapshot Documentation
+    if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' }}
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Extract Maven Version
+        id: version
+        run: |
+          VERSION=$(mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.version -q -DforceStdout)
+          echo "version=$VERSION" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+
+      - name: Deploy Snapshot Documentation
+        uses: secure-software-engineering/actions/documentation/handle-deployment@develop
+        with:
+          name: ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
+          title: ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
+
+  # On tag creation (i.e. new release): Deploy a stable version to directory with tag
+  deploy-doc-stable:
+    name: Deploy Stable Documentation
+    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          ref: ${{ github.ref }}
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Deploy Stable Documentation
+        uses: secure-software-engineering/actions/documentation/handle-deployment@develop
+        with:
+          name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+          title: ${{ github.ref_name }}
+          stable: true

.github/workflows/doc_preview.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+name: Documentation Preview
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    types:
+      - opened
+      - closed
+      - synchronize
+      - reopened
+    paths:
+      - mkdocs.yml
+      - docs/**
+      - .github/workflows/doc_preview.yml
+
+concurrency:
+  group: gh-pages
+
+jobs:
+  deploy-preview:
+    name: Preview documentation
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+      pull-requests: write
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout Repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Create Documentation Preview
+        uses: secure-software-engineering/actions/documentation/handle-pr-preview@develop
+        with:
+          preview-name: pr-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
+          preview-title: Preview for PR-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}

.gitignore

@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ shippable/
 *.prefs
 *.xml
 **/target
+**/site

docs/boomerang/allocation_sites.md

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+# Defining Allocation Sites
+
+Boomerang provides an interface that allows the definition of individual allocation sites. An allocation site is a value that should be considered as a points-to object.
+
+
+## Allocation Site Interface
+
+To define an individual allocation site, we have to implement the `IAllocationSite` interface and override its method `getAllocationSite(...)` that returns an optional `AllocVal`. 
+An `AllocVal` represents an allocation site and acts as a wrapper for the allocation site statement and value.
+If the optional is present, the `AllocVal` is added to the resulting allocation sites.
+
+When performing a backward analysis, Boomerang calls this method on each statement on each data-flow path. 
+It provides three parameters to the method `getAllocationSite`:
+
+- Method: The current method
+- Statement: The current statement that may contain an allocation site
+- Val: The current propagated data-flow fact
+
+These parameters necessitate two checks that should be part of each allocation site implementation:
+
+- Check whether the statement is an assignment
+- Check whether the left operand of the assignment is equal to the propagated data-flow fact
+
+The first point is relevant because an allocation site is defined as an assignment.
+The second aspect is relevant to avoid returning statements that are not relevant to the points-to analysis.
+Boomerang propagates only data-flow facts that are relevant to or alias with the query variable.
+Therefore, one can exclude irrelevant assignments with the second check.
+
+To this end, a self-defined allocation site should have at least the following code:
+
+```java
+public class ExtendedAllocationSite implements IAllocationSite {
+
+    @Override
+    public Optional<AllocVal> getAllocationSite(Method method, Statement statement, Val fact) {
+        // Check for assignments        
+        if (!statement.isAssignStmt()) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        Val leftOp = statement.getLeftOp();
+        Val rightOp = statement.getRightOp();
+        // Check for correct data-flow fact
+        if (!leftOp.equals(fact)) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        // rightOp is a potential allocation site
+        ...
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Last, to use our self-defined allocation site, we need to add it to the options:
+
+```java
+BoomerangOptions options = 
+                    BoomerangOptions.builder()
+                            .withAllocationSite(new ExtendedAllocationSite())
+                            ...
+                            .build();
+```
+
+## Simple Allocation Site
+
+To show how an implementation of the `IAllocationSite` interface may look like, we consider the following simple example:
+
+Assume our program requires *constants* and *new expressions* as allocation sites. 
+Then, the interface implementation may look like this:
+
+```java
+public class SimpleAllocationSite implements IAllocationSite {
+
+    @Override
+    public Optional<AllocVal> getAllocationSite(Method method, Statement statement, Val fact) {
+        // Check for assignments        
+        if (!statement.isAssignStmt()) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        Val leftOp = statement.getLeftOp();
+        Val rightOp = statement.getRightOp();
+        // Check for correct data-flow fact
+        if (!leftOp.equals(fact)) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        // Constant allocation sites: var = <constant>
+        if (rightOp.isConstant()) {
+            AllocVal allocVal = new AllocVal(leftOp, statement, rightOp);
+            return Optional.of(allocVal);
+        }
+
+        // New expressions: var = new java.lang.Object
+        if (rightOp.isNewExpr()) {
+            AllocVal allocVal = new AllocVal(leftOp, statement, rightOp);
+            return Optional.of(allocVal);
+        }
+
+        return Optional.empty();
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Using this allocation site implementation, Boomerang returns values that are either *new expressions* (e.g. `new java.lang.Object`) or *constants* (e.g. int, String etc.).
+
+## Allocation Site with DataFlowScope
+
+In many cases, we are interested in finding an allocation site to analyze it.
+However, a common scenario where Boomerang cannot find an allocation site occurs when a data-flow path ends because we have a function call that is not part of the application.
+For example, using the `SimpleAllocationSite` from the previous section, Boomerang would not find an allocation site in the following program:
+
+```java
+String s = System.getProperty("property");  // Most precise allocation site
+...
+queryFor(s);                                
+```
+
+Boomerang does not compute an allocation site because `System.getProperty("property")` is not a *constant* or a *new expression*.
+Additionally, we may be interested in analyzing only our own application, that is, we do not load the JDK class `java.lang.System` and exclude it in the `DataFlowScope`.
+In this case, Boomerang returns an empty results set because the data-flow path ends at the call `System.getProperty("property")`.
+
+To cover these scenarios, we can include the `DataFlowScope` in the allocation site implementation.
+For example, we can extend the [DefaultAllocationSite](https://github.com/secure-software-engineering/Boomerang/blob/develop/boomerangPDS/src/main/java/boomerang/options/DefaultAllocationSite.java) as follows:
+
+```java
+public class ExtendedDataFlowScope extends DefaultAllocationSite {
+
+    private final DataFlowScope dataFlowScope;
+
+    public ExtendedDataFlowScope(DataFlowScope dataFlowScope) {
+        this.dataFlowScope = dataFlowScope;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Optional<AllocVal> getAllocationSite(Method method, Statement statement, Val fact) {
+        // Check for assignments        
+        if (!statement.isAssignStmt()) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        Val leftOp = statement.getLeftOp();
+        Val rightOp = statement.getRightOp();
+        // Check for correct data-flow fact
+        if (!leftOp.equals(fact)) {
+            return Optional.empty();
+        }
+
+        // Check for function calls that would end the data-flow path
+        // If the function call is not excluded, Boomerang can continue with the analysis
+        if (statement.containsInvokeExpr()) {
+            InvokeExpr invokeExpr = statement.getInvokeExpr();
+            DeclaredMethod declaredMethod = invokeExpr.getDeclaredMethod();
+
+            if (dataFlowScope.isExcluded(declaredMethod)) {
+                // rightOp is the invoke expression
+                AllocVal allocVal = new AllocVal(leftOp, statement, rightOp);
+                return Optional.of(allocVal);
+            }
+        }
+
+        // If the statement does not contain a function call, we continue with the default behavior
+        return super.getAllocationSite(method, statement, fact);
+    }
+}
+```
+
+With this implementation, we cover function calls that would end the analysis, and we can conclude that the allocation site cannot be computed precisely.
+For example, having `System.getProperty("property")` as allocation site indicates that the query variable points to some object that depends on some system variables at runtime.