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Coverity Takes Its SATs


Coverity has developed a new static code analysis engine

By David Worthington
September 19, 2007 — 
In the 1970s there was Lint, a static source code analysis tool that flagged suspicious constructs in C code; false positives were common then, but modern tools can identify a broader range of constructs—with far fewer false positives.

Coverity added a completely new type of source code analysis engine to its Prevent SQS software quality system, in an update released on Sept. 19. Prevent SQS uses a technique called SAT (from Boolean Satisfiability). Unlike many tools, SAT is not based on data flow analysis.

Rather, it complements Coverity’s data flow analysis engine. SAT is concerned with whether a Boolean expression has a solution.

Coverity Prevent SQS maps code, identifies and resolves defects. It automatically builds a “Software DNA” map to understand the code and break down languages such as C. It then translates the map into relevant formulas for defect detection, applies bit-accurate reasoning and runs an assertion-based SAT-solver, chief technology officer Ben Chelf explained.

According to a Coverity white paper, a SAT-solver “takes in a formula of variables under the operations and determines if there is a mapping of each individual variable to true and false, such that the entire formula evaluates to true.” This method is meant to flag defects and reduce false positives.

SAT was first used commercially in the electronic design automation industry for semiconductor chip design, Chelf explained. He added, “The hardware guys are way ahead of software.”

The discovered defects fit into the same workflows as those discovered by customers or QA teams, Chelf said. The classes of defects Prevent SQS detects are buffer overflows, dead code, integer overflows and string overflows.

Additional SAT solvers are slated for the next release of Coverity Prevent SQS.


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