Linvail

Linvail is a npm module which provides provenancial equality to JavaScript.

As many other languages, JavaScript supports two kinds of equality: structural equality which compares values based on their content and referential equality which compare value based on their memory location. Provenancial equality goes a step further and compares values based on their provenance. Provenancial equality can be seen as a stricter version of referential equality which is itself a stricter version of structural equality. In other words, the following implication holds:

(x eq_prov y) => (x eq_ref y) => (x eq_struct y)

demo

Provenancial equality forms the foundation for advanced dynamic program analyses, such as taint analysis and concolic testing.

Basic Usage in Node

// main.mjs
import { is } from "linvail/library";
const foo1 = 123;
const foo2 = 123;
const bar = 456;
const array = [bar, foo1];
array.sort();
console.log(array[0]); // 123
console.log(array[1]); // 456
console.log(is(array[0], foo1)); // true
console.log(is(array[0], foo2)); // false

> npm install linvail
> npx linvail main.mjs
123
456
true
false

Convenience CLI

Configuration options can be passed to the CLI using environment variables:

• LINVAIL_INCLUDE: A comma-separated list of globs to designate the files where data povenance should be tracked. Default: "**/*".
• LINVAIL_EXCLUDE: A comma-separated list of globs to designate the files where data provenance should not be tracked; takes precedence over LINVAIL_INCLUDE. Default: "node_modules/**/*".
• LINVAIL_GLOBAL_OBJECT: Defines whether data provenance should be tracked across the global object and the global declarative record. Default: "external".
  • "external": Leave the global object and the global declarative record intact.
  • "internal": Replace the global object and the global declarative record with new objects that can track data provenance.
• LINVAIL_GLOBAL_DYNAMIC_CODE: Defines whether data provenance should be tracked across global dynamic code. Note that data provenance is always tracked across local dynamic code (i.e.: strings passed to direct eval calls). Default: "internal".
• LINVAIL_COUNT: Defines whether tracked primitive values should embed a hidden __index property which can only be observed when passing values to Linvail.dir. Default: false.

Convenience API

types

• is(value1, value2): Provenancial equality.
• dir(value): Bypass the access control system and log the value to the console.
• Set, Map, WeakSet, and WeakMap: Similar to their standard counter part but keys are compared using provenancial equality.

  import { Set } from "linvail/library";
  const foo = 123;
  const set = new Set([foo]);
  console.log(set.has(foo)); // true
  console.log(set.has(123)); // false

Core Usage

For more advanced use cases, the core API must be used. Reasons to use the core interface over the convenience interface include:

• Dynamic program analysis based on provenancial equality; the target program does not import the linvail library.
• Using a runtime other than Node.
• Overcoming limitations of the convenience interface.

demo repo

// main.mjs
import { generate } from "astring";
import { parse } from "acorn";
import { setupile, transpile, retropile } from "aran";
import { createRuntime, weave } from "linvail";

const {
  eval: evalGlobal,
  console: { log, dir },
  Reflect: { defineProperty },
} = globalThis;

const advice_global_variable = "__LINVAIL_ADVICE__";

const intrinsics = evalGlobal(generate(setupile()));

const { advice, library } = createRuntime(intrinsics, { dir });

defineProperty(globalThis, advice_global_variable, {
  __proto__: null,
  value: advice,
  writable: false,
  enumerable: false,
  configurable: false,
});

const code = `(({ is }) => {
  const foo1 = 123;
  const foo2 = 123;
  return is(foo1, foo1) && !is(foo1, foo2);
});`;

const main = evalGlobal(
  generate(
    retropile(
      weave(
        transpile({
          path: "dynamic://eval/global",
          kind: "eval",
          situ: { type: "global" },
          root: parse(code, { ecmaVersion: "latest" }),
        }),
        { advice_global_variable },
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

log(main(library)); // true

> npm instal acorn astring aran linvail
> node main.mjs
true

Core API

domain

• linvail/runtime
  • setupRuntime(intrinsics, options): Setup Linvail's runtime.
    • intrinsics: An object containing intrinsic values provided by evaluating code generated by aran.setupile.
    • options: A configuration object.
      • dir: A function used to log values to the console.
    • Returns an advice object which should be made available as a global variable.
  • createRuntime(intrinsics, options) Same as setupRuntime but returns an object containing both the advice and the library which should exposed to the instrumented code.
  • toStandardAdvice(advice): Convert a custom Linvail advice into a standard Aran, allowing aran.weaveStandard to replace linvail.weave.
  • standard_pointcut: Standard Aran pointcut that should be provided to aran.weaveStandard.
• linvail/instrument
  • weave(node, options): Instrument AranLang programs, the output expects a global variable holding a Linvail advice object.
    • node: An AranLang program node.
    • options: A configuration object.
      • advice_global_variable: The name of the global variable containing the Linvail advice object.