@article {164, title = {Loop summarization using state and transition invariants}, journal = {Formal Methods in System Design}, volume = {42}, year = {2013}, issn = {0925-9856}, author = {Kroening, D. and Natasha Sharygina and Tonetta, S. and Tsitovich, A. and Wintersteiger, C.M.} } @article {168, title = {Resolution Proof Transformation for Compression and Interpolation}, journal = {CoRR}, volume = {July 2013}, year = {2013}, author = {Rollini, S.F. and Bruttomesso, R. and Natasha Sharygina and Tsitovich, A.} } @article {340, title = {An abstraction refinement approach combining precise and approximated techniques}, journal = {International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT)}, volume = {14}, year = {2012}, abstract = {

Predicate abstraction is a powerful technique to reduce the state space of a program to a finite and affordable number of states. It produces a conservative over-approximation where concrete states are grouped together according to a given set of predicates. A precise abstraction contains the minimal set of transitions with regard to the predicates, but as a result is computationally expensive. Most model checkers therefore approximate the abstraction to alleviate the computation of the abstract system by trading off precision with cost. However, approximation results in a higher number of refinement iterations, since it can produce more false counterexamples than its precise counterpart. The refinement loop can become prohibitively expensive for large programs. This paper proposes a new approach that employs both precise (slow) and approximated (fast) abstraction techniques within one abstraction-refinement loop. It allows computing the abstraction quickly, but keeps it precise enough to avoid too many refinement iterations. We implemented the new algorithm in a state-of-the-art software model checker. Our tests with various real-life benchmarks show that the new approach almost systematically outperforms both precise and imprecise techniques.

}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10009-011-0185-y}, author = {Natasha Sharygina and Stefano Tonetta and Aliaksei Tsitovich} } @article { Natasha Sharygin, title = {An abstraction refinement approach combining precise and approximated techniques}, journal = {International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT)}, volume = {14}, year = {2012}, pages = {1-14}, publisher = {Springer}, keywords = {Approximated abstraction, CEGAR, Precise abstraction, Predicate abstraction}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10009-011-0185-y}, author = {Natasha Sharygina and Tonetta, S. and Tsitovich, A.} } @conference { twks11, title = {Loop Summarization and Termination Analysis}, booktitle = {International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS)}, volume = {6605}, year = {2011}, pages = {81-95}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Saarbr{\"u} Germany}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19835-9_9}, author = {Aliaksei Tsitovich and Natasha Sharygina and Christoph M. Wintersteiger and Kroening, Daniel} } @mastersthesis { Aliaksei Tsitovi, title = {Scalable Abstractions for Efficient Security Checks}, year = {2011}, pages = {164}, school = {University of Lugano}, type = {PhD Thesis}, address = {Lugano}, author = {Aliaksei Tsitovich} } @conference {145, title = {Flexible Interpolation with Local Proof Transformations}, booktitle = {International Conference of Computer Aided Design (ICCAD)}, year = {2010}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, organization = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {San Jose, USA}, abstract = {

Model checking based on Craig{\textquoteright}s interpolants ultimately relies on efficient engines, such as SMT-solvers, to log proofs of unsatisfiability and to derive the desired interpolant by means of a set of algorithms known in literature. These algorithms, however, are designed for proofs that do not contain mixed predicates. In this paper we present a technique for transforming the propositional proof produced by an SMT-solver in such a way that mixed predicates are eliminated. We show a number of cases in which mixed predicates arise as a consequence of state-of-the-art solving procedures (e.g. lemma on demand, theory combination, etc.). In such cases our technique can be applied to allow the application of known interpolation algorithms. We demonstrate with a set of experiments that our approach is viable.

}, author = {Bruttomesso, R. and Rollini, S.F. and Natasha Sharygina and Tsitovich, A.} } @conference { BPST10, title = {The OpenSMT Solver}, booktitle = {International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS)}, volume = {6015}, year = {2010}, pages = {150-153}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Paphos, Cyprus}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12002-2_12}, author = {Bruttomesso, R. and Pek, E. and Natasha Sharygina and Tsitovich, A.} } @conference {154, title = {Termination Analysis with Compositional Transition Invariants}, booktitle = {International Conference on Computer-Aided Verification (CAV)}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Edinburgh, UK}, abstract = {

Modern termination provers rely on a safety checker to construct disjunctively well-founded transition invariants. This safety check\ is known to be the bottleneck of the procedure. We present an alternative algorithm that uses a light-weight check based on transitivity of\ ranking relations to prove program termination. We provide an experimental evaluation over a set of 87 Windows drivers, and demonstrate\ that our algorithm is often able to conclude termination by examining\ only a small fraction of the program. As a consequence, our algorithm is\ able to outperform known approaches by multiple orders of magnitude.\ 

}, author = {Kroening, D. and Natasha Sharygina and Tsitovich, A. and Wintersteiger, C.M.} } @conference {153, title = {Loopfrog: A Static Analyzer for ANSI-C Programs}, booktitle = {The 24th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering}, year = {2009}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, organization = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Auckland, 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.

}, author = {Kroening, D. and Natasha Sharygina and Tonetta, S. and Tsitovich, A. and Wintersteiger, C.M.} } @conference {156, title = {The Synergy of Precise and Fast Abstractions for Program Verification}, booktitle = {24th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC)}, year = {2009}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {Honolulu, USA}, abstract = {

Predicate abstraction is a powerful technique to reduce the state space of a program to a finite and affordable number of states. It produces a conservative over-approximation where concrete states are grouped together according to the predicates. Given a set of predicates, a precise abstraction contains the minimal set of transitions, but as a result is computationally expensive. Most model checkers therefore approximate the abstraction to alleviate the computation of the abstract system by trading off precision with cost. However, approximation results in a higher number of refinement iterations, since it can produce more false counterexamples than its precise counterpart. The refinement loop can become prohibitively expensive for large programs.

This paper proposes a new abstraction refinement technique that combines slow and precise predicate abstraction techniques with fast and imprecise ones. It allows computing the abstraction quickly, but keeps it precise enough to avoid too many refinement iterations. We implemented the new algorithm in a state-of-the-art software model checker. Our tests with various real life benchmarks show that the new approach systematically outperforms both precise and imprecise techniques.

}, author = {Natasha Sharygina and Tonetta, S. and Tsitovich, A.} } @conference {155, title = {Detection of Security Vulnerabilities Using Guided Model Checking}, booktitle = {24th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP)}, year = {2008}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Udine, Italy}, author = {Tsitovich, A.} } @conference {152, title = {Loop Summarization using Abstract Transformers}, booktitle = {6th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA)}, year = {2008}, publisher = {Springer, Volume 5311}, organization = {Springer, Volume 5311}, address = {Seoul, South Korea}, abstract = {

Existing program analysis tools that implement abstraction rely on saturating procedures to compute over-approximations of fixpoints. As an alternative, we propose a new algorithm to compute an over-approximation of the set of reachable states of a program by replacing loops in the control flow graph by their abstract transformer. Our technique is able to generate diagnostic information in case of property violations, which we call leaping counterexamples. We have implemented this technique and report experimental results on a set of large ANSI-C programs using abstract domains that focus on properties related to string-buffers.

}, author = {Kroening, D. and Natasha Sharygina and Tonetta, S. and Tsitovich, A. and Wintersteiger, C.M.} }