Skip to main content

The BLAST Software Verification System

  • Conference paper
Book cover Model Checking Software (SPIN 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 3639))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Blast is a verification system for checking safety properties of C programs. Blast implements a lazy-abstraction algorithm, which integrates automatic abstraction refinement and model checking [8]. The input to Blast is a C program and a safety monitor written in a specification language with C like syntax [1]. The lazy-abstraction algorithm returns either an error trace of the program together with a corresponding test case [2], or a proof that the program satisfies the safety property [6] (or, since the problem is undecidable, the algorithm may fail to terminate). Blast automatically constructs and refines a parsimonious predicate abstraction of the input program, using an interpolation-based decision procedure to find, based on counterexample analysis, the relevant predicates for each individual control location [5].

Blast has successfully verified and found violations of interface safety properties of large device driver programs [6,5], memory safety properties [3], race conditions in nesC programs (using an extension for concurrent programs) [4], and file handling properties of large open-source programs [9]. Extensions to Blast support program testing [2] and incremental programming [7].

Blast is available from http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/ blast.

This research was supported in part by the NSF grants CCR-0234690, CCR-0225610, ITR-0326577, and CCR-0427202.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Beyer, D., Chlipala, A., Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R.: The blast query language for software verification. In: Giacobazzi, R. (ed.) SAS 2004. LNCS, vol. 3148, pp. 2–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Beyer, D., Chlipala, A., Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R.: Generating tests from counterexamples. In: ICSE 2004, pp. 326–335. ACM, New York (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Beyer, D., Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R.: Checking memory safety with blast. In: Cerioli, M. (ed.) FASE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3442, pp. 2–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R.: Race checking by context inference. In: PLDI 2004, pp. 1–13. ACM, New York (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R., McMillan, K.L.: Abstractions from proofs. In: POPL 2004, pp. 232–244. ACM, New York (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R., Necula, G.C., Sutre, G., Weimer, W.: Temporal-safety proofs for systems code. In: Brinksma, E., Larsen, K.G. (eds.) CAV 2002. LNCS, vol. 2404, pp. 526–538. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R., Sanvido, M.A.A.: Extreme model checking. In: Dershowitz, N. (ed.) Verification: Theory and Practice. LNCS, vol. 2772, pp. 332–358. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R., Sutre, G.: Lazy abstraction. In: POPL 2002, pp. 58–70. ACM, New York (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Jhala, R., Majumdar, R.: Path slicing. In: PLDI 2005. ACM, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Henzinger, T.A., Jhala, R., Majumdar, R. (2005). The BLAST Software Verification System. In: Godefroid, P. (eds) Model Checking Software. SPIN 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3639. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11537328_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11537328_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28195-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31899-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics