Abstract interpretation repair

Abstract

Abstract interpretation is a sound-by-construction method for program verification: any erroneous program will raise some alarm. However, the verification of correct programs may yield false-alarms, namely it may be incomplete. Ideally, one would like to perform the analysis on the most abstract domain that is precise enough to avoid false-alarms. We show how to exploit a weaker notion of completeness, called local completeness, to optimally refine abstract domains and thus enhance the precision of program verification. Our main result establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an optimal, locally complete refinement, called pointed shell. On top of this, we define two repair strategies to remove all false-alarms along a given abstract computation: the first proceeds forward, along with the concrete computation, while the second moves backward within the abstract computation. Our results pave the way for a novel modus operandi for automating program verification that we call Abstract Interpretation Repair (AIR): instead of choosing beforehand the right abstract domain, we can start in any abstract domain and progressively repair its local incompleteness as needed. In this regard, AIR is for abstract interpretation what CEGAR is for abstract model checking.