SOSP2021

Snowboard: Finding Kernel Concurrency Bugs through Systematic Inter-thread Communication Analysis

Sishuai Gong, Deniz Altinbüken, Pedro Fonseca, Petros Maniatis

26 citations

Abstract

Kernel concurrency bugs are challenging to find because they depend on very specific thread interleavings and test inputs. While separately exploring kernel thread interleavings or test inputs has been closely examined, jointly exploring interleavings and test inputs has received little attention, in part due to the resulting vast search space. Using precious, limited testing resources to explore this search space and execute just the right concurrent tests in the proper order is critical.