12 Search Results for "Regehr, John"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagRep.15.6.69
Testing Program Analyzers and Verifiers (Dagstuhl Seminar 25242)

Authors: Maria Christakis, Alastair F. Donaldson, John Regehr, and Thodoris Sotiropoulos

Published in: Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 15, Issue 6 (2026)

Abstract
This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 25242 "Testing Program Analyzers and Verifiers". Program analyzers and verifiers are routinely employed during software development to prevent and detect faults. In this seminar, we examine the impact of faults within these tools, distinguishing between those that are critical and those that are less severe. We also explore and discuss state-of-the-art techniques for uncovering faults in program analyzers and verifiers, their connections to related domains such as compiler testing, and potential future directions for improving their reliability.
Cite as

Maria Christakis, Alastair F. Donaldson, John Regehr, and Thodoris Sotiropoulos. Testing Program Analyzers and Verifiers (Dagstuhl Seminar 25242). In Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 15, Issue 6, pp. 69-83, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@Article{christakis_et_al:DagRep.15.6.69,
  author =	{Christakis, Maria and Donaldson, Alastair F. and Regehr, John and Sotiropoulos, Thodoris},
  title =	{{Testing Program Analyzers and Verifiers (Dagstuhl Seminar 25242)}},
  pages =	{69--83},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Reports},
  ISSN =	{2192-5283},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{15},
  number =	{6},
  editor =	{Christakis, Maria and Donaldson, Alastair F. and Regehr, John and Sotiropoulos, Thodoris},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagRep.15.6.69},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255761},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagRep.15.6.69},
  annote =	{Keywords: formal methods, program analysis, static analysis, testing, verification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.Programming.2025.20
On the Effectiveness of Interpreter-Guided Compiler Testing

Authors: Federico Lochbaum and Guillermo Polito

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 134, Companion Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (Programming 2025)

Abstract
Guaranteeing that a compiler behaves correctly is a complex task often approached through test generation and fuzzing. Compiler test generation must not only ensure that a compiler generates code that does not break, but also that it implements the programming language semantics. Recently, interpreter-guided test generation has been proposed to test JIT compilers: Concolic-execution on the interpreter yields test cases for the language semantics which are then validated between differential testing of the interpreter and compiler. In previous work, this solution has been shown to find interpreter/compiler differences. However, little has been said about the effectiveness and the solution limits. In this paper we study the behavior of this technique, to shed light on future improvements and research. We experiment with this technique on the JIT compiler for the Pharo programming language, on two different backends: ARMv7 and x86. We explore how effective the solution is in terms of compiler coverage and its limitations, and we discuss how future research can overcome them. Moreover, we investigate how this technique combined with random constraint mutations increases backend compiler coverage.
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Federico Lochbaum and Guillermo Polito. On the Effectiveness of Interpreter-Guided Compiler Testing. In Companion Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (Programming 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 134, pp. 20:1-20:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{lochbaum_et_al:OASIcs.Programming.2025.20,
  author =	{Lochbaum, Federico and Polito, Guillermo},
  title =	{{On the Effectiveness of Interpreter-Guided Compiler Testing}},
  booktitle =	{Companion Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming (Programming 2025)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:15},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-382-9},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{134},
  editor =	{Edwards, Jonathan and Perera, Roly and Petricek, Tomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.Programming.2025.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243040},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.Programming.2025.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Virtual Machines, Concolic Testing, JIT compilers, interpreters, Differential Testing, Constraint Mutations, Compiler Coverage}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.4
Bit-Precise Reasoning with Parametric Bit-Vectors

Authors: Zvika Berger, Yoni Zohar, Aina Niemetz, Mathias Preiner, Andrew Reynolds, Clark Barrett, and Cesare Tinelli

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 341, 28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025)

Abstract
The SMT-LIB theory of bit-vectors is restricted to bit-vectors of fixed width. However, several important applications can benefit from reasoning about bit-vectors of symbolic widths, i.e., parametric bit-vectors. Recent work has introduced an approach for solving formulas over parametric bit-vectors, via an eager translation to quantified integer arithmetic with uninterpreted functions. The approach was shown to be successful for several applications, including the bit-width independent verification of compiler optimizations, invertibility conditions, and rewrite rules. We extend and improve that approach in several aspects. Theoretically, we improve expressiveness by defining a new theory of parametric bit-vectors that supports more operators and allows reasoning about the bit-widths themselves. Algorithmically, we introduce a lazy algorithm that avoids the use of uninterpreted functions and quantified axioms for them. Empirically, we show a significant improvement by implementing and evaluating our approach, and comparing it experimentally to the previous one.
Cite as

Zvika Berger, Yoni Zohar, Aina Niemetz, Mathias Preiner, Andrew Reynolds, Clark Barrett, and Cesare Tinelli. Bit-Precise Reasoning with Parametric Bit-Vectors. In 28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 341, pp. 4:1-4:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{berger_et_al:LIPIcs.SAT.2025.4,
  author =	{Berger, Zvika and Zohar, Yoni and Niemetz, Aina and Preiner, Mathias and Reynolds, Andrew and Barrett, Clark and Tinelli, Cesare},
  title =	{{Bit-Precise Reasoning with Parametric Bit-Vectors}},
  booktitle =	{28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025)},
  pages =	{4:1--4:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-381-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{341},
  editor =	{Berg, Jeremias and Nordstr\"{o}m, Jakob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-237385},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Satisfiability Modulo Theories, Bit-precise Reasoning, Parametric Bit-vectors}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2025.1
Computation First: Rebuilding Constructivism with Effects (Invited Talk)

Authors: Liron Cohen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 337, 10th International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction (FSCD 2025)

Abstract
Constructive logic and type theory have traditionally been grounded in pure, effect-free model of computation. This paper argues that such a restriction is not a foundational necessity but a historical artifact, and it advocates for a broader perspective of effectful constructivism, where computational effects, such as state, non-determinism, and exceptions, are directly and internally embedded in the logical and computational foundations. We begin by surveying examples where effects reshape logical principles, and then outline three approaches to effectful constructivism, focusing on realizability models: Monadic Combinatory Algebras, which extend classical partial combinatory algebras with effectful computation; Evidenced Frames, a flexible semantic structure capable of uniformly capturing a wide range of effects; and Effectful Higher-Order Logic (EffHOL), a syntactic approach that directly translates logical propositions into specifications for effectful programs. We further illustrate how concrete type theories can internalize effects, via the family of type theories TT^□_C. Together, these works demonstrate that effectful constructivism is not merely possible but a natural and robust extension of traditional frameworks.
Cite as

Liron Cohen. Computation First: Rebuilding Constructivism with Effects (Invited Talk). In 10th International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction (FSCD 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 337, pp. 1:1-1:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{cohen:LIPIcs.FSCD.2025.1,
  author =	{Cohen, Liron},
  title =	{{Computation First: Rebuilding Constructivism with Effects}},
  booktitle =	{10th International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction (FSCD 2025)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-374-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{337},
  editor =	{Fern\'{a}ndez, Maribel},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2025.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-236167},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2025.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Effectful constructivism, realizability, type theory, monadic combinatory algebras, evidenced frame}
}
Document
Experience Paper
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39
WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API (Experience Paper)

Authors: Matthew K. L. Wong and Alastair F. Donaldson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
We report on our experience designing a new technique and tool for fuzzing implementations of WebGPU, a W3C standard JavaScript API for in-browser GPU computing. We also report on our experience using our WebGlitch tool to test industrial-strength implementations of WebGPU, leading to the discovery of numerous bugs. WebGPU enables programmatic access to a device’s graphics processing unit (GPU) for in-browser GPU computing, and is being implemented by Google, Mozilla and Apple for inclusion in all of the major web browsers. Guaranteeing the security and reliability of WebGPU is crucial to avoid wide-reaching browser security vulnerabilities and to facilitate portability by ensuring uniform behaviour across different platforms. To that end - inspired by randomised compiler testing techniques - our approach to fuzzing creates random, valid-by-construction programs by continuously selecting a WebGPU API function, then recursively generating all requirements necessary for that API call to be valid based on careful modelling of the API specification. This is implemented as a new open source tool, WebGlitch, which we designed in consultation with engineers at Google who work on the Chrome WebGPU implementation. WebGlitch identifies bugs through sanitiser-boosted crash oracles, differential testing, and by identifying cases where valid-by-construction API calls lead to runtime errors. We present an evaluation showing that WebGlitch can find bugs missed by an existing WebGPU fuzzer, wg-fuzz, and across the broader WebGPU ecosystem: to date, WebGlitch has found 24 previously-unknown bugs (15 fixed so far in response to our reports). Among these, 17 bugs affected WebGPU implementations from Google, Mozilla, and the Deno project. WebGlitch found an additional 4 bugs in the shader compilers used by the graphics APIs that WebGPU interfaces with. The remaining 3 bugs affect the widely-used JavaScript runtimes Node.js and Deno. Fuzzing with WebGlitch also led us to identify an ambiguity in the specification of the WebGPU shading language, for which we proposed an amendment that was accepted by W3C and which has been adopted in the latest version of the specification. Analysing the line coverage of a WebGPU implementation by WebGlitch-generated programs revealed that WebGlitch covers code missed by wg-fuzz and the official conformance test suite. Our hope is that this report on the design of WebGlitch and its deployment in practice will be useful for practitioners and researchers interested in using API fuzzing to improve the reliability of industrial codebases.
Cite as

Matthew K. L. Wong and Alastair F. Donaldson. WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API (Experience Paper). In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 39:1-39:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{wong_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39,
  author =	{Wong, Matthew K. L. and Donaldson, Alastair F.},
  title =	{{WebGlitch: A Randomised Testing Tool for the WebGPU API}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233313},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fuzzing, WebGPU, WGSL, API, shaders}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13
FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation

Authors: Amber Gorzynski and Alastair F. Donaldson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
Decompilation is the process of translating compiled code into high-level code. Control flow recovery is a challenging part of the process. "Misdecompilations" can occur, whereby the decompiled code does not accurately represent the semantics of the compiled code, despite it being syntactically valid. This is problematic because it can mislead users who are trying to reason about the program. We present CFG-based program generation: a novel approach to randomised testing that aims to improve the control flow recovery of decompilers. CFG-based program generation involves randomly generating control flow graphs (CFGs) and paths through each graph. Inspired by prior work in the domain of GPU computing, (CFG, path) pairs are "fleshed" into test programs. Each program is decompiled and recompiled. The test oracle verifies whether the actual runtime path through the graph matches the expected path. Any difference in the execution paths after recompilation indicates a possible misdecompilation. A key benefit of this approach is that it is largely independent of the source and target languages in question because it is focused on control flow. The approach is therefore applicable to numerous decompilation settings. The trade-off resulting from the focus on control flow is that misdecompilation bugs that do not relate to control flow (e.g. bugs that involve specific arithmetic operations) are out of scope. We have implemented this approach in FuzzFlesh, an open-source randomised testing tool. FuzzFlesh can be easily configured to target a variety of low-level languages and decompiler toolchains because most of the CFG and path generation process is language-independent. At present, FuzzFlesh supports testing decompilation of Java bytecode, .NET assembly and x86 machine code. In addition to program generation, FuzzFlesh also includes an automated test-case reducer that operates on the CFG rather than the low-level program, which means that it can be applied to any of the target languages. We present a large experimental campaign applying FuzzFlesh to a variety of decompilers, leading to the discovery of 12 previously-unknown bugs across two language formats, six of which have been fixed. We present experiments comparing our generic FuzzFlesh tool to two state-of-the-art decompiler testing tools targeted at specific languages. As expected, the coverage our generic FuzzFlesh tool achieves on a given decompiler is lower than the coverage achieved by a tool specifically designed for the input format of that decompiler. However, due to its focus on control flow, FuzzFlesh is able to cover sections of control flow recovery code that the targeted tools cannot reach, and identify control flow related bugs that the targeted tools miss.
Cite as

Amber Gorzynski and Alastair F. Donaldson. FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 13:1-13:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{gorzynski_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13,
  author =	{Gorzynski, Amber and Donaldson, Alastair F.},
  title =	{{FuzzFlesh: Randomised Testing of Decompilers via Control Flow Graph-Based Program Generation}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233062},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: Decompiler, Reverse Engineering, Control Flow, Software Testing, Fuzzing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.14
IsaBIL: A Framework for Verifying (In)correctness of Binaries in Isabelle/HOL

Authors: Matt Griffin, Brijesh Dongol, and Azalea Raad

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
This paper presents IsaBIL, a binary analysis framework in Isabelle/HOL that is based on the widely used Binary Analysis Platform (BAP). Specifically, in IsaBIL, we formalise BAP’s intermediate language, called BIL and integrate it with Hoare logic (to enable proofs of correctness) as well as incorrectness logic (to enable proofs of incorrectness). IsaBIL inherits the full flexibility of BAP, allowing us to verify binaries for a wide range of languages (C, C++, Rust), toolchains (LLVM, Ghidra) and target architectures (x86, RISC-V), and can also be used when the source code for a binary is unavailable. To make verification tractable, we develop a number of big-step rules that combine BIL’s existing small-step rules at different levels of abstraction to support reuse. We develop high-level reasoning rules for RISC-V instructions (our main target architecture) to further optimise verification. Additionally, we develop Isabelle proof tactics that exploit common patterns in C binaries for RISC-V to discharge large numbers of proof goals (often in the 100s) automatically. IsaBIL includes an Isabelle/ML based parser for BIL programs, allowing one to automatically generate the associated Isabelle/HOL program locale from a BAP output. Taken together, IsaBIL provides a highly flexible proof environment for program binaries. As examples, we prove correctness of key examples from the Joint Strike Fighter coding standards and the MITRE database.
Cite as

Matt Griffin, Brijesh Dongol, and Azalea Raad. IsaBIL: A Framework for Verifying (In)correctness of Binaries in Isabelle/HOL. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 14:1-14:30, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{griffin_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.14,
  author =	{Griffin, Matt and Dongol, Brijesh and Raad, Azalea},
  title =	{{IsaBIL: A Framework for Verifying (In)correctness of Binaries in Isabelle/HOL}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:30},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233070},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Binary Analysis Platform, Isabelle/HOL, Hoare Logic, Incorrectness Logic}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.3
Pydrofoil: Accelerating Sail-Based Instruction Set Simulators

Authors: Carl Friedrich Bolz-Tereick, Luke Panayi, Ferdia McKeogh, Tom Spink, and Martin Berger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
We present Pydrofoil, a multi-stage compiler that generates instruction set simulators (ISSs) from processor instruction set architectures (ISAs) expressed in the high-level, verification-oriented ISA specification language Sail. Pydrofoil achieves a > 230× speedup over the C-based ISS generated by Sail on our benchmarks, thanks to the following insights. (i) An ISS is effectively an interpreter loop, and tracing just-in-time (JIT) compilers have proven effective at accelerating those, albeit mostly for dynamically typed languages. (ii) ISS workloads are highly atypical, dominated by intensive bit manipulation operations. Conventional compiler optimisations for general-purpose programming languages have limited impact for speeding up such workloads. We develop suitable domain-specific optimisations. (iii) Neither tracing JIT compilers, nor ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation alone, even with domain-specific optimisations, suffice for the generation of performant ISSs. Pydrofoil therefore implements a hybrid approach, pairing an AOT compiler with a tracing JIT built on the meta-tracing PyPy framework. AOT and JIT use domain-specific optimisations. Our benchmarks demonstrate that combining AOT and JIT compilers provides significantly greater performance gains than using either compiler alone.
Cite as

Carl Friedrich Bolz-Tereick, Luke Panayi, Ferdia McKeogh, Tom Spink, and Martin Berger. Pydrofoil: Accelerating Sail-Based Instruction Set Simulators. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 3:1-3:31, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bolztereick_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.3,
  author =	{Bolz-Tereick, Carl Friedrich and Panayi, Luke and McKeogh, Ferdia and Spink, Tom and Berger, Martin},
  title =	{{Pydrofoil: Accelerating Sail-Based Instruction Set Simulators}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:31},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232962},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Instruction set architecture, processor, domain-specific language, just-in-time compilation, meta-tracing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.17
Debiasing Functions of Private Statistics in Postprocessing

Authors: Flavio Calmon, Elbert Du, Cynthia Dwork, Brian Finley, and Grigory Franguridi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 329, 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)

Abstract
Given a differentially private unbiased estimate q̃ = q(D) +ν of a statistic q(D), we wish to obtain unbiased estimates of functions of q(D), such as 1/q(D), solely through post-processing of q̃, with no further access to the confidential dataset D. To this end, we adapt the deconvolution method used for unbiased estimation in the statistical literature, deriving unbiased estimators for a broad family of twice-differentiable functions - those that are tempered distributions - when the privacy-preserving noise ν is drawn from the Laplace distribution (Dwork et al., 2006). We further extend this technique to functions other than tempered distributions, deriving approximately optimal estimators that are unbiased for values in a user-specified interval (possibly extending to ± ∞). We use these results to derive an unbiased estimator for private means when the size n of the dataset is not publicly known. In a numerical application, we find that a mechanism that uses our estimator to return an unbiased sample size and mean outperforms a mechanism that instead uses the previously known unbiased privacy mechanism for such means (Kamath et al., 2023). We also apply our estimators to develop unbiased transformation mechanisms for per-record differential privacy, a privacy concept in which the privacy guarantee is a public function of a record’s value (Seeman et al., 2024). Our mechanisms provide stronger privacy guarantees than those in prior work (Finley et al., 2024) by using Laplace, rather than Gaussian, noise. Finally, using a different approach, we go beyond Laplace noise by deriving unbiased estimators for polynomials under the weak condition that the noise distribution has sufficiently many moments.
Cite as

Flavio Calmon, Elbert Du, Cynthia Dwork, Brian Finley, and Grigory Franguridi. Debiasing Functions of Private Statistics in Postprocessing. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 17:1-17:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{calmon_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.17,
  author =	{Calmon, Flavio and Du, Elbert and Dwork, Cynthia and Finley, Brian and Franguridi, Grigory},
  title =	{{Debiasing Functions of Private Statistics in Postprocessing}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-367-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{329},
  editor =	{Bun, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231449},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Differential privacy, deconvolution, unbiasedness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LITES-v005-i001-a003
The Semantic Foundations and a Landscape of Cache-Persistence Analyses

Authors: Jan Reineke

Published in: LITES, Volume 5, Issue 1 (2018). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 5, Issue 1

Abstract
We clarify the notion of cache persistence and contribute to the understanding of persistence analysis for caches with least-recently-used replacement.To this end, we provide the first formal definition of persistence as a property of a trace semantics. Based on this trace semantics we introduce a semantics-based, i.e., abstract-interpretation-based persistence analysis framework.We identify four basic persistence analyses and prove their correctness as instances of this analysis framework.Combining these basic persistence analyses via two generic cooperation mechanisms yields a lattice of ten persistence analyses.Notably, this lattice contains all persistence analyses previously described in the literature. As a consequence, we obtain uniform correctness proofs for all prior analyses and a precise understanding of how and why these analyses work, as well as how they relate to each other in terms of precision.
Cite as

Jan Reineke. The Semantic Foundations and a Landscape of Cache-Persistence Analyses. In LITES, Volume 5, Issue 1 (2018). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 5, Issue 1, pp. 03:1-03:52, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@Article{reineke:LITES-v005-i001-a003,
  author =	{Reineke, Jan},
  title =	{{The Semantic Foundations and a Landscape of Cache-Persistence Analyses}},
  journal =	{Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems},
  pages =	{03:1--03:52},
  ISSN =	{2199-2002},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{5},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LITES-v005-i001-a003},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-192748},
  doi =		{10.4230/LITES-v005-i001-a003},
  annote =	{Keywords: caches, persistence analysis, WCET analysis}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LITES-v003-i001-a005
A Survey on Static Cache Analysis for Real-Time Systems

Authors: Mingsong Lv, Nan Guan, Jan Reineke, Reinhard Wilhelm, and Wang Yi

Published in: LITES, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 3, Issue 1

Abstract
Real-time systems are reactive computer systems that must produce their reaction to a stimulus within given time bounds. A vital verification requirement is to estimate the Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) of programs. These estimates are then used to predict the timing behavior of the overall system. The execution time of a program heavily depends on the underlying hardware, among which cache has the biggest influence. Analyzing cache behavior is very challenging due to the versatile cache features and complex execution environment. This article provides a survey on static cache analysis for real-time systems. We first present the challenges and static analysis techniques for independent programs with respect to different cache features. Then, the discussion is extended to cache analysis in complex execution environment, followed by a survey of existing tools based on static techniques for cache analysis. An outlook for future research is provided at last.
Cite as

Mingsong Lv, Nan Guan, Jan Reineke, Reinhard Wilhelm, and Wang Yi. A Survey on Static Cache Analysis for Real-Time Systems. In LITES, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016). Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 05:1-05:48, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@Article{lv_et_al:LITES-v003-i001-a005,
  author =	{Lv, Mingsong and Guan, Nan and Reineke, Jan and Wilhelm, Reinhard and Yi, Wang},
  title =	{{A Survey on Static Cache Analysis for Real-Time Systems}},
  journal =	{Leibniz Transactions on Embedded Systems},
  pages =	{05:1--05:48},
  ISSN =	{2199-2002},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{3},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LITES-v003-i001-a005},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-192603},
  doi =		{10.4230/LITES-v003-i001-a005},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hard real-time, Cache analysis, Worst-case execution time}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.07011.4
Runtime Verification for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

Authors: Oleg Sokolsky, Usa Sammapun, John Regehr, and Insup Lee

Published in: Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 7011, Runtime Verification (2008)

Abstract
We present a case study that considers the application of runtime verification technology to a wireless sensor application. The case study is performed using the SURGE TinyOS application for multi-hop routing, which executes on the Avrora TinyOS simulator. We discuss the problems we have encountered in the course of case study. The problems include unclear correctness properties for wireless network applications (indicating ad hoc development process) and inadequate tool support. A wireless sensor network usually comprises of a collection of tiny devices with built-in processors that can gather physical and environment information such as temperature, light, sound, etc., and communicate with one another over radio. Many wireless sensor network applications sit on top of an operating system called TinyOS and are mostly written in nesC, an extension of C that provides a component-based programming paradigm. Most of wireless sensor network applications are developed and tested on a simulator before they are deployed in the environment because testing and debugging directly on physical devices are very difficult, especially when the network consists of many nodes, and may not provide enough information for debugging. A simulator usually produces detailed execution information and can help find errors. However, even with the simulator and nesC, the current state of development tools for wireless sensor network still requires very low-level programming, which makes it hard for the developers to maintain a high-level view of the system operation. During the validation stage, lack of sophisticated debugging tools for sensor networks makes it difficult to make the connection between a high-level functional or performance requirement and a particular aspect of system implementation. This paper investigates a high-level approach to examine execution data from a simulator and analyze it using runtime verification. The technique 1) identifies and formally specifies high-level requirements for the system under development, 2) monitors a distributed wireless sensor network application using data provided by the simulator, and 3) checks for timing and dynamic properties to gain understanding of the relevant behaviors of wireless sensor nodes and to provide a systematic approach in finding bugs and errors. A particular runtime verification used inthis paper is MaC. MaC provides specification languages capable of expressing functional, timing, and probabilistic properties to specify requirements or patterns of errors. Properties can, for example, examine periodic behaviors or identify a faulty node. MaC then monitors and checks a wireless sensor network application against its specification by observing data produced by a simulator. The motivation for applying the monitoring and checking technique to check wireless sensor network applications is threefold: 1) raise the development level for wireless sensor network, 2) provide a mechanism for understanding high-level behaviors of the system in terms of low-level observation, and 3) provide a tool based on the acceptance of the state of the art development tool for sensor networks.
Cite as

Oleg Sokolsky, Usa Sammapun, John Regehr, and Insup Lee. Runtime Verification for Wireless Sensor Network Applications. In Runtime Verification. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 7011, pp. 1-9, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2008)

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@InProceedings{sokolsky_et_al:DagSemProc.07011.4,
  author =	{Sokolsky, Oleg and Sammapun, Usa and Regehr, John and Lee, Insup},
  title =	{{Runtime Verification for Wireless Sensor Network Applications}},
  booktitle =	{Runtime Verification},
  pages =	{1--9},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2008},
  volume =	{7011},
  editor =	{Bernd Finkbeiner and Klaus Havelund and Grigore Rosu and Oleg Sokolsky},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.07011.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-13719},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.07011.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Runtime verification, wireless sensor network, Avrora simulator}
}
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