Publication detail

Applying Custom Patterns in Semantic Equality Analysis

ŠILLING, P. MALÍK, V. VOJNAR, T.

Original Title

Applying Custom Patterns in Semantic Equality Analysis

Type

conference paper

Language

English

Original Abstract

This paper develops a novel approach to using code change patterns in static analysis of semantic equivalence of large-scale software. In particular, we propose a way to define custom code change patterns, describing changes that do change the semantics but in a safe way, and a graph-based algorithm to efficiently detect occurrences of such patterns between two versions of software. The proposed method allows one to reduce the number of false positive results generated by static code-pattern-based analysis of semantic equivalence by specifying which patterns of changes should be considered semantically equivalent. Our experiments with the Linux kernel show that it is possible to eliminate a substantial number of detected differences with just a small number of patterns, while maintaining a very high scalability of the overall analysis. Furthermore, the proposed concept allows for a possible future combination with automatic inference of patterns, which promises significant improvements in the area of static analysis of semantic equivalence.

Keywords

static analysis, program analysis, semantic difference, semantic equivalence, semantic change patterns, pattern matching, parametrized control-flow graphs

Authors

ŠILLING, P.; MALÍK, V.; VOJNAR, T.

Released

4. 10. 2022

Publisher

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Location

Cham

ISBN

978-3-031-17436-0

Book

Networked Systems

Edition

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Pages from

265

Pages to

282

Pages count

18

URL

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-17436-0_18

BibTex

@inproceedings{BUT181497,
  author="Petr {Šilling} and Viktor {Malík} and Tomáš {Vojnar}",
  title="Applying Custom Patterns in Semantic Equality Analysis",
  booktitle="Networked Systems",
  year="2022",
  series="Lecture Notes in Computer Science",
  volume="13464",
  pages="265--282",
  publisher="Springer Nature Switzerland AG",
  address="Cham",
  doi="10.1007/978-3-031-17436-0\{_}18",
  isbn="978-3-031-17436-0",
  url="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-17436-0_18"
}