Automatic Inference of Frame Axioms Using Static Analysis

Many approaches to software verification are currently semi-automatic: a human must provide key logical insights — e.g., loop invariants, class invariants, and frame axioms that limit the scope of changes that must be analyzed. This paper describes a technique for automatically inferring frame axioms of procedures and loops using static analysis. The technique builds on a pointer analysis that generates limited information about all data structures in the heap. Our technique uses that information to over-approximate a potentially unbounded set of memory locations modified by each procedure/loop; this overapproximation is a candidate frame axiom. We have tested this approach on the buffer-overflow benchmarks from ASE 2007. With manually provided specifications and invariants/axioms, our tool could verify/falsify 226 of the 289 benchmarks. With our automatically inferred frame axioms, the tool could verify/falsify 203 of the 289, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: KBSE
• Authors: Zvonimir Rakamaric, Alan J. Hu
• Keywords: Candidate Frame Axiom, Frame Axioms, KBSE 2008, Key Logical Insights, Software Engineering