A Hybrid Approach for Safe Memory Management in C

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel approach that establishes a synergy between static and dynamic analyses for detecting memory errors in C code. We extend the standard C type system with effect, region, and host annotations that are relevant to memory management. We define static memory checks to detect memory errors using these annotations. The statically undecidable checks are delegated to dynamic code instrumentation to secure program executions. The static analysis guides its dynamic counterpart by locating instrumentation points and their execution paths. Our dynamic analysis instruments programs with in-lined monitors that observe program executions and ensure safe-fail when encountering memory errors. We prototype our approach by extending the GCC compiler with our type system, a dynamic monitoring library, and code instrumentation capabilities.KeywordsDynamic AnalysisNull PointerMemory ManagementExecution PathMemory BlockThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.