Testing static analyzers with randomly generated programs

Pascal Cuoq, Benjamin Monate, Anne Pacalet, Virgile Prevosto, John Regehr, Boris Yakobowski, Xuejun Yang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Static analyzers should be correct. We used the random C-program generator Csmith, initially intended to test C compilers, to test parts of the Frama-C static analysis platform. Although Frama-C was already relatively mature at that point, fifty bugs were found and fixed during the process, in the front-end (AST elaboration and type-checking) and in the value analysis, constant propagation and slicing plug-ins. Several bugs were also found in Csmith, even though it had been extensively tested and had been used to find numerous bugs in compilers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNASA Formal Methods - 4th International Symposium, NFM 2012, Proceedings
Pages120-125
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Apr 2012
Externally publishedYes
Event4th NASA Formal Methods Symposium, NFM 2012 - Norfolk, VA, United States
Duration: 3 Apr 20125 Apr 2012

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume7226 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference4th NASA Formal Methods Symposium, NFM 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNorfolk, VA
Period3/04/125/04/12

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