Loopfrog: A Static Analyzer for ANSI-C Programs

TitleLoopfrog: A Static Analyzer for ANSI-C Programs
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsKroening, D., Sharygina Natasha, Tonetta S., Tsitovich A., and Wintersteiger C.M.
Conference NameThe 24th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Conference LocationAuckland, New Zealand
Abstract

Practical software verification is dominated by two major classes of techniques. The first is model checking, which provides total precision, but suffers from the state space explosion problem. The second is abstract interpretation, which is usually much less demanding, but often returns a high number of false positives.

We present Loopfrog, a static analyzer that combines the best of both worlds: the precision of model checking and the performance of abstract interpretation. In contrast to traditional static analyzers, it also provides "leaping" counterexamples to aid in the diagnosis of errors.

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