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Computer Science > Programming Languages

arXiv:2505.18818 (cs)
[Submitted on 24 May 2025]

Title:Automated Verification of Monotonic Data Structure Traversals
in C

Authors:Matthew Sotoudeh
View a PDF of the paper titled Automated Verification of Monotonic
Data Structure Traversals in C, by Matthew Sotoudeh
View PDF HTML (experimental)

    Abstract:Bespoke data structure operations are common in
    real-world C code. We identify one common subclass, monotonic
    data structure traversals (MDSTs), that iterate monotonically
    through the structure. For example, strlen iterates from start to
    end of a character array until a null byte is found, and a binary
    search tree insert iterates from the tree root towards a leaf. We
    describe a new automated verification tool, Shrinker, to verify
    MDSTs written in C. Shrinker uses a new program analysis strategy
    called scapegoating size descent, which is designed to take
    advantage of the fact that many MDSTs produce very similar traces
    when executed on an input (e.g., some large list) as when
    executed on a 'shrunk' version of the input (e.g., the same list
    but with its first element deleted). We introduce a new benchmark
    set containing over one hundred instances proving correctness,
    equivalence, and memory safety properties of dozens of MDSTs
    found in major C codebases including Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
    QEMU, Git, and Musl. Shrinker significantly increases the number
    of monotonic string and list traversals that can be verified vs.
    a portfolio of state-of-the-art tools.

Comments: CAV 2025, tool at this https URL
Subjects: Programming Languages (cs.PL); Logic in Computer Science
          (cs.LO)
Cite as:  arXiv:2505.18818 [cs.PL]
          (or arXiv:2505.18818v1 [cs.PL] for this version)
          https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.18818
          Focus to learn more
          arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Matthew Sotoudeh [view email]
[v1] Sat, 24 May 2025 18:25:22 UTC (90 KB)
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