1,789 research outputs found
Automatic Verification of Message-Based Device Drivers
We develop a practical solution to the problem of automatic verification of
the interface between device drivers and the OS. Our solution relies on a
combination of improved driver architecture and verification tools. It supports
drivers written in C and can be implemented in any existing OS, which sets it
apart from previous proposals for verification-friendly drivers. Our
Linux-based evaluation shows that this methodology amplifies the power of
existing verification tools in detecting driver bugs, making it possible to
verify properties beyond the reach of traditional techniques.Comment: In Proceedings SSV 2012, arXiv:1211.587
Synthesizing Finite-state Protocols from Scenarios and Requirements
Scenarios, or Message Sequence Charts, offer an intuitive way of describing
the desired behaviors of a distributed protocol. In this paper we propose a new
way of specifying finite-state protocols using scenarios: we show that it is
possible to automatically derive a distributed implementation from a set of
scenarios augmented with a set of safety and liveness requirements, provided
the given scenarios adequately \emph{cover} all the states of the desired
implementation. We first derive incomplete state machines from the given
scenarios, and then synthesis corresponds to completing the transition relation
of individual processes so that the global product meets the specified
requirements. This completion problem, in general, has the same complexity,
PSPACE, as the verification problem, but unlike the verification problem, is
NP-complete for a constant number of processes. We present two algorithms for
solving the completion problem, one based on a heuristic search in the space of
possible completions and one based on OBDD-based symbolic fixpoint computation.
We evaluate the proposed methodology for protocol specification and the
effectiveness of the synthesis algorithms using the classical alternating-bit
protocol.Comment: This is the working draft of a paper currently in submission.
(February 10, 2014
A System for Deduction-based Formal Verification of Workflow-oriented Software Models
The work concerns formal verification of workflow-oriented software models
using deductive approach. The formal correctness of a model's behaviour is
considered. Manually building logical specifications, which are considered as a
set of temporal logic formulas, seems to be the significant obstacle for an
inexperienced user when applying the deductive approach. A system, and its
architecture, for the deduction-based verification of workflow-oriented models
is proposed. The process of inference is based on the semantic tableaux method
which has some advantages when compared to traditional deduction strategies.
The algorithm for an automatic generation of logical specifications is
proposed. The generation procedure is based on the predefined workflow patterns
for BPMN, which is a standard and dominant notation for the modeling of
business processes. The main idea for the approach is to consider patterns,
defined in terms of temporal logic,as a kind of (logical) primitives which
enable the transformation of models to temporal logic formulas constituting a
logical specification. Automation of the generation process is crucial for
bridging the gap between intuitiveness of the deductive reasoning and the
difficulty of its practical application in the case when logical specifications
are built manually. This approach has gone some way towards supporting,
hopefully enhancing our understanding of, the deduction-based formal
verification of workflow-oriented models.Comment: International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Stop It, and Be Stubborn!
A system is AG EF terminating, if and only if from every reachable state, a
terminal state is reachable. This publication argues that it is beneficial for
both catching non-progress errors and stubborn set state space reduction to try
to make verification models AG EF terminating. An incorrect mutual exclusion
algorithm is used as an example. The error does not manifest itself, unless the
first action of the customers is modelled differently from other actions. An
appropriate method is to add an alternative first action that models the
customer stopping for good. This method typically makes the model AG EF
terminating. If the model is AG EF terminating, then the basic strong stubborn
set method preserves safety and some progress properties without any additional
condition for solving the ignoring problem. Furthermore, whether the model is
AG EF terminating can be checked efficiently from the reduced state space
Analysing Mutual Exclusion using Process Algebra with Signals
In contrast to common belief, the Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) and
similar process algebras lack the expressive power to accurately capture mutual
exclusion protocols without enriching the language with fairness assumptions.
Adding a fairness assumption to implement a mutual exclusion protocol seems
counter-intuitive. We employ a signalling operator, which can be combined with
CCS, or other process calculi, and show that this minimal extension is
expressive enough to model mutual exclusion: we confirm the correctness of
Peterson's mutual exclusion algorithm for two processes, as well as Lamport's
bakery algorithm, under reasonable assumptions on the underlying memory model.
The correctness of Peterson's algorithm for more than two processes requires
stronger, less realistic assumptions on the underlying memory model.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2017, arXiv:1709.0004
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