Abstracting Strings for Model Checking of C Programs

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14330%2F20%3A00114537" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14330/20:00114537 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7853" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7853</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app10217853" target="_blank" >10.3390/app10217853</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Abstracting Strings for Model Checking of C Programs

Original language description

Data type abstraction plays a crucial role in software verification. In this paper, we introduce a domain for abstracting strings in the C programming language, where strings are managed as null-terminated arrays of characters. The new domain M-String is parametrized on an index (bound) domain and a character domain. By means of these different constituent domains, M-Strings captures shape information on the array structure as well as value information on the characters occurring in the string. By tuning these two parameters, M-String can be easily tailored for specific verification tasks, balancing precision against complexity. The concrete and the abstract semantics of basic operations on strings are carefully formalized, and soundness proofs are fully detailed. Moreover, for a selection of functions contained in the standard C library, we provide the semantics for character access and update, enabling an automatic lifting of arbitrary string-manipulating code into our new domain. An implementation of abstract operations is provided within a tool that automatically lifts existing programs into the M-String domain along with an explicit-state model checker. The accuracy of the proposed domain is experimentally evaluated on real-case test programs, showing that M-String can efficiently detect real-world bugs as well as to prove that program does not contain them after they are fixed.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10200 - Computer and information sciences

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA18-02177S" target="_blank" >GA18-02177S: Abstraction and Other Techniques in Semi-Symbolic Program Verification</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)<br>S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Applied Sciences

ISSN

2076-3417

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

10

Issue of the periodical within the volume

21

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

33

Pages from-to

1-33

UT code for WoS article

000588870800001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85095681850