WYSINWYX: What You See Is Not What You eXecute

What You See Is Not What You eXecute: computers do not execute source-code programs; they execute machine-code programs that are generated from source code. Not only can the WYSINWYX phenomenon create a mismatch between what a programmer intends and what is actually executed by the processor, it can cause analyses that are performed on source code to fail to detect certain bugs and vulnerabilities. This issue arises regardless of whether one’s favorite approach to assuring that programs behave as desired on theorem proving, model checking, or abstract interpretation.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: VSTTE
• Authors: Gogul Balakrishnan, Thomas W. Reps, David Melski, Tim Teitelbaum
• Keywords: Machine-code Programs, Software Engineering, Source Code, Source-code Programs, VSTTE 2005