Past-sensitive pointer analysis for symbolic execution

David Trabish, Timotej Kapus, Noam Rinetzky, Cristian Cadar

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

Abstract

We propose a novel fine-grained integration of pointer analysis with dynamic analysis, including dynamic symbolic execution. This is achieved via past-sensitive pointer analysis, an on-demand pointer analysis instantiated with an abstraction of the dynamic state on which it is invoked. We evaluate our technique in three application scenarios: chopped symbolic execution, symbolic pointer resolution, and write integrity testing. Our preliminary results show that the approach can have a significant impact in these scenarios, by effectively improving the precision of standard pointer analysis with only a modest performance overhead.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationESEC/FSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering
EditorsPrem Devanbu, Myra Cohen, Thomas Zimmermann
Pages197-208
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781450370431
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Nov 2020
Event28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, ESEC/FSE 2020 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: 8 Nov 202013 Nov 2020

Publication series

NameESEC/FSE 2020 - Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering

Conference

Conference28th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, ESEC/FSE 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period8/11/2013/11/20

Keywords

  • Pointer Analysis
  • Symbolic Execution

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software

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