Generating Conforming Programs with Xsmith
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences (GPCE) 2023.
DOI: 10.1145/3624007.3624056
© Copyright 2023 by authors
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areas
Languages,
Software Testing
abstract
Fuzz testing is an effective tool for finding bugs in software, including programming language compilers and interpreters. Advanced fuzz testers can find deep semantic bugs in language implementations through differential testing. However, input programs used for differential testing must not only be syntactically and semantically valid, but also be free from nondeterminism and undefined behaviors. Developing a fuzzer that produces such programs can require tens of thousands of lines of code and hundreds of person-hours. Despite this significant investment, fuzzers designed for differential testing of different languages include many of the same features and analyses in their implementations. To make the implementation of language fuzz testers for differential testing easier, we introduce Xsmith.
Xsmith is a Racket library and domain-specific language that provides mechanisms for implementing a fuzz tester in only a few hundred lines of code. By sharing infrastructure, allowing declarative language specification, and by allowing procedural extensions, Xsmith allows developers to write correct fuzzers for differential testing with little effort. We have developed fuzzers for several languages, and found bugs in implementations of Racket, Dafny, Standard ML, and WebAssembly.