Practical Static Information Flow Control for 
Object-Oriented Languages: Challenges and Opportunities 


We present the static information flow analysis tool Joana 
(http://joana.ipd.kit.edu). Joana leverages sophisticated 
program analysis techniques like pointer analysis and depen-
dency graphs to compute a conservative approximation of infor-
mation flow in a Java program. It can be used to guarantee 
the absence of illegal flow e.g. to verify noninterference. 
We discuss the challenges that arise when analyzing object-
oriented languages and show how we approach them in our tool. 
Those challenges include the effect of pointers and aliasing, 
dynamic dispatch, exception handling as well as subtle inter-
ferences in multi-threaded programs communicating through 
shared memory.