Title
Loop invariant synthesis in a combined abstract domain
Abstract
Automated verification of memory safety and functional correctness for heap-manipulating programs has been a challenging task, especially when dealing with complex data structures with strong invariants involving both shape and numerical properties. Existing verification systems usually rely on users to supply annotations to guide the verification, which can be cumbersome and error-prone by hand and can significantly restrict the usability of the verification system. In this paper, we reduce the need for some user annotations by automatically inferring loop invariants over an abstract domain with both shape and numerical information. Our loop invariant synthesis is conducted automatically by a fixed-point iteration process, equipped with newly designed abstraction mechanism, together with join and widening operators over the combined domain. We have also proven the soundness and termination of our approach. Initial experiments confirm that we can synthesise loop invariants with non-trivial constraints.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.jsc.2012.08.007
J. Symb. Comput.
Keywords
DocType
Volume
abstract domain,strong invariants,existing verification system,verification system,inferring loop invariants,Automated verification,combined abstract domain,combined domain,loop invariants,loop invariant synthesis,numerical information
Journal
50,
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
0747-7171
8
0.49
References 
Authors
24
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Shengchao Qin171162.81
Guanhua He2687.50
Chenguang Luo3565.63
Wei-Ngan Chin486863.37
Xin Chen510232.63