A Survey of Symbolic Execution Techniques

Many security and software testing applications require checking whether certain properties of a program hold for any possible usage scenario. For instance, a tool for identifying software vulnerabilities may need to rule out the existence of any backdoor to bypass a program's authentication. One approach would be to test the program using different, possibly random inputs. As the backdoor may only be hit for very specific program workloads, automated exploration of the space of possible inputs is of the essence. Symbolic execution provides an elegant solution to the problem, by systematically exploring many possible execution paths at the same time without necessarily requiring concrete inputs. Rather than taking on fully specified input values, the technique abstractly represents them as symbols, resorting to constraint solvers to construct actual instances that would cause property violations. 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. The goal of this survey is to provide an overview of the main ideas, challenges, and solutions developed in the area, distilling them for a broad audience. The present survey has been accepted for publication at ACM Computing Surveys. If you are considering citing this survey, we would appreciate if you could use the following BibTeX entry: http://goo.gl/Hf5FvcComment: This is the authors pre-print copy. If you are considering citing this survey, we would appreciate if you could use the following BibTeX entry: http://goo.gl/Hf5Fv

Indexing and retrieval in digital libraries : developing taxonomies for a repository of decision technologies

DecisionNet is an online Internet-based repository of decision technologies. It links remote users with these technologies and provides a directory service to enable search and selection of suitable technologies. The ability to retrieve relevant objects through search mechanisms is basic to any repository's success and usability and depends on effective classification of the decision technologies. This thesis develops classification methods to enable indexing of the DecisionNet repository. Existing taxonomies for software and other online repositories are examined. Criteria and principles for a good taxonomy are established and systematically applied to develop DecisionNet taxonomies. A database design is developed to store the taxonomies and to classify the technologies in the repository. User interface issues for navigation of a hierarchical classification system are discussed. A user interface for remote World Wide Web users is developed. This user interface is designed for browsing the taxonomy structure and creating search parameters online. Recommendations for the implementation of a repository search mechanism are given.http://archive.org/details/indexingndretrie1094532199NAU.S. Navy (U.S.N.) authorApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Bard Observer, Vol. 19, Issue 1 (February 12, 2008)

https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/observer/1488/thumbnail.jp

Automating embedded analysis capabilities and managing software complexity in multiphysics simulation part I: template-based generic programming

An approach for incorporating embedded simulation and analysis capabilities in complex simulation codes through template-based generic programming is presented. This approach relies on templating and operator overloading within the C++ language to transform a given calculation into one that can compute a variety of additional quantities that are necessary for many state-of-the-art simulation and analysis algorithms. An approach for incorporating these ideas into complex simulation codes through general graph-based assembly is also presented. These ideas have been implemented within a set of packages in the Trilinos framework and are demonstrated on a simple problem from chemical engineering

FORMULAE AND ASYMPTOTICS FOR COEFFICIENTS OF ALGEBRAIC FUNCTIONS

International audienc