Automated program repair through the evolution of assembly code

Eric Schulte; Stephanie Forrest; Westley Weimer

doi:10.1145/1858996.1859059

Automated program repair through the evolution of assembly code

Eric Schulte, Stephanie Forrest, Westley Weimer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

A method is described for automatically repairing legacy software at the assembly code level using evolutionary computation. The technique is demonstrated on Java byte code and x86 assembly programs, showing how to find program variations that correct defects while retaining desired behavior. Test cases are used to demonstrate the defect and define required functionality. The paper explores advantages of assembly-level repair over earlier work at the source code level-the ability to repair programs written in many different languages; and the ability to repair bugs that were previously intractable. The paper reports experimental results showing reasonable performance of assembly language repair even on non-trivial programs.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering
Pages	313-316
Number of pages	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1858996.1859059
State	Published - 2010
Externally published	Yes
Event	25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE'10 - Antwerp, Belgium Duration: Sep 20 2010 → Sep 24 2010

Publication series

Name	ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering

Other

Other	25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE'10
Country	Belgium
City	Antwerp
Period	9/20/10 → 9/24/10

Keywords

Assembly code
Bytecode
Evolutionary computation
Fault localization
Legacy software
Program repair

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computational Theory and Mathematics
Human-Computer Interaction
Software

Access to Document

10.1145/1858996.1859059

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Automated program repair through the evolution of assembly code. / Schulte, Eric; Forrest, Stephanie; Weimer, Westley.

ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. 2010. p. 313-316 (ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Schulte, E, Forrest, S & Weimer, W 2010, Automated program repair through the evolution of assembly code. in ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. ASE'10 - Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, pp. 313-316, 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE'10, Antwerp, Belgium, 9/20/10. https://doi.org/10.1145/1858996.1859059

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abstract = "A method is described for automatically repairing legacy software at the assembly code level using evolutionary computation. The technique is demonstrated on Java byte code and x86 assembly programs, showing how to find program variations that correct defects while retaining desired behavior. Test cases are used to demonstrate the defect and define required functionality. The paper explores advantages of assembly-level repair over earlier work at the source code level-the ability to repair programs written in many different languages; and the ability to repair bugs that were previously intractable. The paper reports experimental results showing reasonable performance of assembly language repair even on non-trivial programs.",

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