research-article

Natural proofs for data structure manipulation in C using separation logic

Authors:

P. MadhusudanAuthors Info & Claims

PLDI '14: Proceedings of the 35th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

Pages 440 - 451

https://doi.org/10.1145/2594291.2594325

Published: 09 June 2014 Publication History

Abstract

The natural proof technique for heap verification developed by Qiu et al. [32] provides a platform for powerful sound reasoning for specifications written in a dialect of separation logic called Dryad. Natural proofs are proof tactics that enable automated reasoning exploiting recursion, mimicking common patterns found in human proofs. However, these proofs are known to work only for a simple toy language [32].

In this work, we develop a framework called VCDryad that extends the Vcc framework [9] to provide an automated deductive framework against separation logic specifications for C programs based on natural proofs. We develop several new techniques to build this framework, including (a) a novel tool architecture that allows encoding natural proofs at a higher level in order to use the existing Vcc framework (including its intricate memory model, the underlying type-checker, and the SMT-based verification infrastructure), and (b) a synthesis of ghost-code annotations that captures natural proof tactics, in essence forcing Vcc to find natural proofs using primarily decidable theories.

We evaluate our tool extensively, on more than 150 programs, ranging from code manipulating standard data structures, well-known open source library routines (Glib, OpenBSD), Linux kernel routines, customized OS data structures, etc. We show that all these C programs can be fully automatically verified using natural proofs (given pre/post conditions and loop invariants) without any user-provided proof tactics. VCDryad is perhaps the first deductive verification framework for heap-manipulating programs in a real language that can prove such a wide variety of programs automatically.

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Cited By

Gäher LSammler MJung RKrebbers RDreyer D(2024)RefinedRust: A Type System for High-Assurance Verification of Rust ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36564228:PLDI(1115-1139)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656422
Murali APeña LJhala RMadhusudan P(2023)Complete First-Order Reasoning for Properties of Functional ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228357:OOPSLA2(1063-1092)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622835
Murali APeña LLöding CMadhusudan P(2023)A First-order Logic with FramesACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/358305745:2(1-44)Online publication date: 15-May-2023
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Natural proofs for data structure manipulation in C using separation logic

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We propose natural proofs for reasoning with programs that manipulate data-structures against specifications that describe the structure of the heap, the data stored within it, and separation and framing of sub-structures. Natural proofs are a subclass ...

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cover image ACM Conferences

PLDI '14: Proceedings of the 35th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

June 2014

619 pages

ISBN:9781450327848

DOI:10.1145/2594291

General Chair:
Michael O'Boyle
University of Edinburgh
,
Program Chair:
Keshav Pingali
University of Texas, Austin

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 49, Issue 6
PLDI '14
June 2014
598 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2666356
Editor:
Andy Gill
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 09 June 2014

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PLDI '14

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PLDI '14: ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation

June 9 - 11, 2014

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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PLDI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 52 of 287 submissions, 18%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 406 of 2,067 submissions, 20%

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Cited By

Gäher LSammler MJung RKrebbers RDreyer D(2024)RefinedRust: A Type System for High-Assurance Verification of Rust ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36564228:PLDI(1115-1139)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656422
Murali APeña LJhala RMadhusudan P(2023)Complete First-Order Reasoning for Properties of Functional ProgramsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36228357:OOPSLA2(1063-1092)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3622835
Murali APeña LLöding CMadhusudan P(2023)A First-order Logic with FramesACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/358305745:2(1-44)Online publication date: 15-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3583057
Murali APeña LBlanchard ELöding CMadhusudan P(2022)Model-guided synthesis of inductive lemmas for FOL with least fixpointsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/35633546:OOPSLA2(1873-1902)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563354
Neider DMadhusudan PSaha SGarg PPark D(2020)A Learning-Based Approach to Synthesizing Invariants for Incomplete Verification EnginesJournal of Automated Reasoning10.1007/s10817-020-09570-zOnline publication date: 13-Jul-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10817-020-09570-z
Murali APeña LLöding CMadhusudan P(2020)A First-Order Logic with FramesProgramming Languages and Systems10.1007/978-3-030-44914-8_19(515-543)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-44914-8_19
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Wang YWilke PShao Z(2019)An abstract stack based approach to verified compositional compilation to machine codeProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/32903753:POPL(1-30)Online publication date: 2-Jan-2019
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