In general, abstract interpretation or model checking is suitable for software verification. David trabish, andrea mattavelli, noam rinetzky, and cristian cadar. Static analysis can be described as a way to test code without actually executing it. However, there is a hybrid method called concolic execution which uses both symbolic execution and dynamic testing. Testing is considered a form of dynamic verification, while program analysis is more often a form of static verification.
Combining static analysis and targeted symbolic execution for. Static analysis vs dynamic analysis in software testing. Symbolic execution is an automated technique for program analysis that has recently become practical due to advances in constraint solvers. But because most programs have a huge number of paths we cant usually run symbolic execution to exhaustion. Symbolic execution is a popular program analysis technique introduced in the mid 70s to test whether certain properties can be violated by a piece of software 16, 58, 67, 68. Symbolic execution eventually enumerates all feasible program. In computer science, symbolic execution also symbolic evaluation is a means of analyzing a program to determine what inputs cause each part of a program to execute. Static analysis allows us to reason about all possible executions of a program. Instead of using concrete inputs, symbolic execution executes a program with symbolic inputs. Symbolic execution eventually enumerates all feasible program executions, check assertions on all values of varaibles in a program path, and can prioritize. Perhaps the most famous commercial tool that uses dynamic symbolic execution.
Chopped symbolic execution software reliability group. In directed incremental symbolic execution dise, our insight is to combine the ef. We will consider important software vulnerabilities and attacks that exploit them such as buffer overflows, sql injection, and session hijacking and we will consider defenses that prevent or mitigate these attacks, including advanced testing and program analysis. Dynamic analysis is the testing and evaluation of an application during runtime. Symbolic execution is more appropriate for the purpose of bug finding. Static analysis is done after coding and before executing unit tests. The key idea behind symbolic execution 6,12,23 is to use symbolic values, instead of concrete data values, as input values, and to represent the values of program variables as symbolic expressions over the symbolic values. Concurrency analysis acts as a path selection mechanism for symbolic execution, while symbolic execution acts as a pruning mechanism for concurrency analysis. Static code analysis is the process of detecting errors and defects in a software s source code. Symbolic execution, static analysis, concolic execution, software. Review typically used to find and eliminate errors or ambiguities in documents such as requirements, design, test cases, etc.
This course we will explore the foundations of software security. But static analysis does not have to use symbolic execution. During execution, a symbolic execution engine accumulates a set of constraints on the symbolic. Static testing, a software testing technique in which the software is tested without executing the code. Since symbolic execution of nontrivial software is a timeconsuming endeavor, we proactively and comprehensively except as otherwise indicated by static analysis instrument software with code that. A well known problem with symbolic execution is the path explosion problem. Importantly, we take a build security in mentality, considering techniques at each phase of the development cycle that can be used to strengthen the security of software systems. Combining static concurrency analysis with symbolic execution. The invention discloses an improved software static test method and an improved software static test tool based on symbolic execution. Symbolic computation applies the concept to the analysis of mathematical expressions. Symbolic execution has been incubated in dozens of tools developed over the last four decades, leading to major practical breakthroughs in a number of prominent software reliability applications. During execution, a symbolic execution engine accumulates a set of constraints on the symbolic inputs.
Static analysis and symbolic execution for deadlock. Dynamic symbolic execution guided with static verification results, abstract software defect detection is an increasingly important research topic in software engineering. In computer science, symbolic execution also symbolic evaluation is a means of analyzing a. Static analysis is any offline computation that inspects code and produces opinions about the code quality.
Testing c programs for vulnerability using tracebased symbolic execution and satis. As a result, the output values computed by a program are expressed as a function of the input symbolic. Symbolic execution is a software testing technique that is useful to aid the generation of test data and in proving the program quality. Software and its engineering software testing and debugging. An interpreter follows the program, assuming symbolic values for inputs rather than obtaining actual inputs as normal execution.
Finding bios vulnerabilities with symbolic execution and. Static analysis can be done by a machine to automatically walk through the source code and detect noncomplying rules. Symbolic execution based analysis and testing, in general, has witnessed a significant level of interest from industry citation needed. Directed dynamic symbolic execution for static analysis. Currently, there is no doubt among experts in the field of program certification and quality assurance that automated program analysis methods. Gives assurance about any execution, prior to deployment lots of interesting static analysis ideas and. Static analysis and symbolic execution fred ma medium. Symbolic execution, by contrast, is defined the following way, also pulling from wikipedia. All you ever wanted to know about dynamic taint analysis. Symbolic execution is a powerful technique to systematically explore paths possibly all of a software program. Combining static analysis and targeted symbolic execution for scalable bug nding in application binaries by muhammad riyad parvez a thesis presented to the university of waterloo in ful lment of.
Integrated application of static concurrency analysis and symbolic execution. Symbolic execution for software testing in practice preliminary assessment joint work with cristian cadar, sarfraz khurshid, corina pasareanu, koushik sen, nikolai tillmann and willem visser proceedings of icse2011 international conference on software. Empirical studies of software validation sciencedirect. Symbolic execution eventually enu merates all feasible program executions, check assertions on all values of varaibles in a program path, and can prioritize. The idea here is to use a computer program to analyse a. Symbolic execution may be used just to show an expected symbolic.
Douglas1 and krishanthan krishnamoorthy2 1 university of wyoming, school of energy resources and department. Augmenting logs with static analysis and symbolic execution. Prioritization of performance regression tests for collectionintensive software, international symposium on software testing and analysis. Dynamic analysis and debugging of binary code for security. Combining static analysis and targeted symbolic execution. Static analysis may use symbolic execution and inspect the resulting formula. Static analysis has been used to scan source code for errors that either crash a system or cause security. Software security introducing symbolic execution youtube. Dynamic taint analysis and forward symbolic execution but might have been afraid to ask edward j.
Wikipedia defines static analysis as the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs. Dependency analysis symbolic execution can you pull them apart in a different way. Generalized symbolic execution for model checking and testing sarfraz khurshid1, corina s. Static analysis is the testing and evaluation of an application by examining the code without executing the application. Symbolic execution is a program analysis and testing method. Security and privacy software and application security additional key words and phrases. Essentially, for a symbolic executor to consider the entirety programs space of executions it needs to consider every path. Cn102262580a improved software static test method and. Symbolic execution is categorized into static analysis. Despite static analysis could qualitatively verify the timingleakagefree property under speculative execution, it is incapable of producing endorsements including inputs and speculated flows to diagnose leaks in depth. Symbolic testin9 and anomaly analysis symbolic testing involves the symbolic execution of a program over symbols stand ing for values rather than actual data. The national standard for the secure software development requires the use of source code static analysis tools as one of the measures of software quality assurance at the development stage and the application of dynamic analysis.
It has attracted considerable attentions in recent years due to the rapid progress of modern sat. Static analysis involves no dynamic execution of the software under test and can detect possible defects in an early stage, before running the program. Using static symbolic execution to detect buffer overflows. Dynamic symbolic execution for the analysis of web server.
Testing c programs for vulnerability using tracebased. Static analysis and symbolic execution for deadlock detection in mpi programs craig c. If the exploration terminates, it can guarantee that there exists or does not exist a feasible path and program input, respectively, that. Integrated application of static concurrency analysis and symbolic execution sharpens the results of the former without incurring the full costs of the latter when applied in isolation. Or it may use some other technique regular expressions, classic compiler flow analyses. A survey of new trends in symbolic execution for software testing and analysis. The word concolic is a portmanteau of concrete and symbolic and is a hybrid software verification technique that performs symbolic execution, a classical technique that treats program variables as symbolic variables, along a concrete execution.
While static analysis may suggest the potential existence of a path that exercises both statements so that one statement influences the other statement, the path may be infeasible. Keywords symbolic execution, static analysis, program slicing acm reference format. Directed dynamic symbolic execution for static analysis warnings. Some insights about symbolic execution i execute programs with symbols. Symbolic executors are both sound and complete, while static analyzers can only be one or the other 10. Guiding dynamic symbolic execution toward unverified. Static analysis employs various formal methods such as abstract interpretation, model checking, and symbolic execution. Concolic testing is another term often thrown in when discussing symbolic execution or symbolic analysis. Symbolic execution may be used just to show an expected symbolic result of a computation. Using static symbolic execution to detect buffer overflows article in programming and computer software 435. Symbolic execution, viewed as a kind of static analysis, has which of the following. Think about what it means to perform static examinations of a program.
1143 1112 765 1360 1018 606 98 571 427 407 899 441 1449 861 702 1159 113 78 927 76 687 1366 1141 1156 937 1189 835 1461 1524 1147 939 890 1164 943 420 704 146 1062 1260 862