An Automated Approach to Increasing the Robustness of C Libraries

Research output: Contribution to conferencesPaperContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

As our reliance on computers increases, so does the need for robust software. Previous studies have shown that many C libraries exhibit robustness problems due to exceptional inputs. This paper describes the HEALERS system that uses an automated approach to increasing the robustness of C libraries without source code access. The system extracts the C type information for a shared library using header files and manual pages. Then it generates for each global function a fault-injector to determine a "robust " argument type for each argument. Based on this information and optionally, some manual editing, the system generates a robustness wrapper that performs careful argument checking before invoking C library functions. A robustness evaluation using Ballista tests has shown that our wrapper can prevent crash, hang, and abort failures. Moreover the wrapper generation process is highly automated and can easily adapt to new library releases.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages155-166
Number of pages12
Publication statusPublished - 2002
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

TitleInternational Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks 2002
Abbreviated titleDSN '02
Duration23 - 26 June 2002
Degree of recognitionInternational event
CityWashington
CountryUnited States of America

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards

Keywords

  • Robustness, Software libraries, Computer crashes, Data mining, Programming profession, Automatic control, Control systems, Vehicle creash testing, Java, memory management, C language, software reliability, C library robustness, robust softwarea, exceptional inputs, HEALERS system, Source code access, shared library, header files, fault-injector, robustness wrapper, argument checking, Ballista test