Topic
Predicate abstraction
About: Predicate abstraction is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 606 publications have been published within this topic receiving 25225 citations.
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08 Jul 2003
TL;DR: Counterexample-guided abstraction refinement is an automatic abstraction method where the key step is to extract information from false negatives ("spurious counterexamples") due to over-approximation.
Abstract: The main practical problem in model checking is the combinatorial explosion of system states commonly known as the state explosion problem. Abstraction methods attempt to reduce the size of the state space by employing knowledge about the system and the specification in order to model only relevant features in the Kripke structure. Counterexample-guided abstraction refinement is an automatic abstraction method where, starting with a relatively small skeletal representation of the system to be verified, increasingly precise abstract representations of the system are computed. The key step is to extract information from false negatives ("spurious counterexamples") due to over-approximation.
1,520 citations
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TL;DR: This work presents an algorithm for model checking safety properties using lazy abstraction and describes an implementation of the algorithm applied to C programs and provides sufficient conditions for the termination of the method.
Abstract: One approach to model checking software is based on the abstract-check-refine paradigm: build an abstract model, then check the desired property, and if the check fails, refine the model and start over. We introduce the concept of lazy abstraction to integrate and optimize the three phases of the abstract-check-refine loop. Lazy abstraction continuously builds and refines a single abstract model on demand, driven by the model checker, so that different parts of the model may exhibit different degrees of precision, namely just enough to verify the desired property. We present an algorithm for model checking safety properties using lazy abstraction and describe an implementation of the algorithm applied to C programs. We also provide sufficient conditions for the termination of the method.
1,238 citations
11 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, a finite-state abstraction of a sequential program with potentially recursive procedures and input from the environment is checked statically whether there are input sequences that can drive the system into "bad/good" executions.
Abstract: Given a finite-state abstraction of a sequential program with potentially recursive procedures and input from the environment, we wish to check statically whether there are input sequences that can drive the system into “bad/good” executions. Pushdown games have been used in recent years for such analyses and there is by now a very rich literature on the subject. (See, e.g., [BS92,Tho95,Wal96,BEM97,Cac02a,CDT02].)
1,144 citations
01 May 2001
TL;DR: This work presents the first algorithm to automatically construct a predicate abstraction of programs written in am industrial programming language such as C, and its implementation in a tool -- C2BP, part of the SLAM toolkit.
Abstract: Model checking has been widely successful in validating and debugging designs in the hardware and protocol domains. However, state-space explosion limits the applicability of model checking tools, so model checkers typically operate on abstractions of systems.Recently, there has been significant interest in applying model checking to software. For infinite-state systems like software, abstraction is even more critical. Techniques for abstracting software are a prerequisite to making software model checking a reality.We present the first algorithm to automatically construct a predicate abstraction of programs written in an industrial programming language such as C, and its implementation in a tool — C2BP. The C2BP tool is part of the SLAM toolkit, which uses a combination of predicate abstraction, model checking, symbolic reasoning, and iterative refinement to statically check temporal safety properties of programs.Predicate abstraction of software has many applications, including detecting program errors, synthesizing program invariants, and improving the precision of program analyses through predicate sensitivity. We discuss our experience applying the C2BP predicate abstraction tool to a variety of problems, ranging from checking that list-manipulating code preserves heap invariants to finding errors in Windows NT device drivers.
800 citations
02 May 2001
TL;DR: A process for validating temporal safety properties of software that uses a well-defined interface is presented, and it is found that the process converges on a set of predicates powerful enough to validate properties in just a few iterations.
Abstract: We present a process for validating temporal safety properties of software that uses a well-defined interface. The process requires only that the user state the property of interest. It then automatically creates abstractions of C code using iterative refinement, based on the given property. The process is realized in the SLAM toolkit, which consists of a model checker, predicate abstraction tool and predicate discovery tool. We have applied the SLAM toolkit to a number of Windows NT device drivers to validate critical safety properties such as correct locking behavior. We have found that the process converges on a set of predicates powerful enough to validate properties in just a few iterations.
680 citations