Abstracting Strings for Model Checking of C Programs

LAUKO, Henrich, Martina OLLIARO, Agostino CORTESI and Petr ROČKAI. Abstracting Strings for Model Checking of C Programs. Applied Sciences. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, vol. 10, No 21, p. 1-33. ISSN 2076-3417. doi:10.3390/app10217853. 2020.

Basic information

• Original name: Abstracting Strings for Model Checking of C Programs
• Authors: LAUKO, Henrich (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Martina OLLIARO (380 Italy, belonging to the institution), Agostino CORTESI (380 Italy) and Petr ROČKAI (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Applied Sciences, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2020, 2076-3417.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10200 1.2 Computer and information sciences
• Country of publisher: Switzerland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 2.679
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14330/20:00114537
• Organization unit: Faculty of Informatics
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/app10217853
• UT WoS: 000588870800001
• Keywords in English: string analysis; model checking; abstract interpretation; abstract domain
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

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.

Links

• GA18-02177S, research and development project: Name: Abstrakce a jiné techniky v semi-symbolické verifikaci programů

Investor: Czech Science Foundation