Cristian Cadar Professor Department of Computing Imperial College London ERC Consolidator Grant Awardee EPSRC Early-Career Fellow (2014-2019)

@c_cadar c.cadar@imperial.ac.uk ccadar.blogspot.co.uk

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Software Reliability Group

Publications

Talks

Teaching

Service

Software

Contact

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I am a Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, where I lead the Software Reliability Group. My research interests span the areas of software engineering, computer systems and software security, with a focus on building practical techniques for improving the reliability and security of software systems.

I have received the BCS Roger Needham Award in 2019, a SIGOPS Hall of Fame award in 2018, an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2018, the HVC Award in 2017, the ACM Computer and Communications Security (CCS) Test of Time Award in 2016, a BCS Fellowship in 2016, the Jochen Liedtke Young Researcher Award in 2015 and an EPSRC Early-Career Fellowship in 2013.

Our research has received Best Experience Paper Award at ASE 2017, Best Paper Award at ICST 2016, Best Artifact Award at ISSTA 2014, Distinguished Artifact Award at ESEC/FSE 2013, and the Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award at OSDI 2008.

Previously, I received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, an M.Eng. in Computer Science from MIT, and a B.S. in Computer Science and one in Mathematics also from MIT.

I am always looking for bright and motivated PhD students interested in developing novel techniques and tools for improving software reliability, and we regularly have postoc openings too. I am particularly interested in students having a strong background in systems programming and compilers, and experience with building and working with large software systems. Please send me email if you are interested in doing a PhD in my group, and attach a CV to your email. If your background matches our research interests, I will try to send a reply soon. We advertise specific funding opportunities here.

Selected Publications

The full list of papers published since 2010 is available on the Software Reliability Group website.

• Computing Summaries of String Loops in C for Better Testing and Refactoring
  Timotej Kapus, Oren Ish-Shalom, Shachar Itzhaky, Noam Rinetzky, Cristian Cadar
  ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2019)
  Phoenix, AZ, USA, June 2019
  
  
• Mvedsua: Higher Availability Dynamic Software Updates via Multi-Version Execution
  Luís Pina, Anastasios Andronidis, Michael Hicks, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS 2019)
  Providence, RI, USA, April 2019
  
  
• Chopped Symbolic Execution
  David Trabish, Andrea Mattavelli, Noam Rinetzky, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2018)
  Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2018
  
  
• Shadow of a Doubt: Testing for Divergences Between Software Versions
  Hristina Palikareva, Tomasz Kuchta, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2016)
  Austin, TX, USA, May 2016
  An extended version of this paper appeared in TOSEM 2018.
  
  
• Targeted Program Transformations for Symbolic Execution
  Cristian Cadar
  European Software Engineering Conference / Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering New Ideas Track (ESEC/FSE NI 2015)
  Bergamo, Italy, September 2015
  
  
• Varan the Unbelievable: An Efficient N-version Execution Framework
  Petr Hosek, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS'15)
  Istanbul, Turkey, March 2015
  
  
• Covrig: A Framework for the Analysis of Code, Test, and Coverage Evolution in Real Software
  Paul Dan Marinescu, Petr Hosek, Cristian Cadar
  International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA 2014)
  San Jose, CA, USA, July 2014
  
  
• Docovery: Toward Generic Automatic Document Recovery
  Tomasz Kuchta, Cristian Cadar, Miguel Castro, Manuel Costa
  International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2014)
  Västerås, Sweden, September 2014
  
  
• KATCH: High-Coverage Testing of Software Patches
  Paul Dan Marinescu, Cristian Cadar
  European Software Engineering Conference / Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE)
  Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 2013
  Awarded a Distinguished Artifact Award
  
  
• Symbolic Execution for Software Testing: Three Decades Later
  Cristian Cadar, Koushik Sen
  Communications of the ACM (CACM)
  Volume 56, Issue 2, 2013
  
  
• Safe Software Updates via Multi-version Execution
  Petr Hosek, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2013)
  San Francisco, CA, May 2013
  
  
• Multi-Version Software Updates
  Cristian Cadar, Petr Hosek
  Workshop on Hot Topics in Software Upgrades (HotSWUp 2012)
  Zurich, Switzerland, June 2012
  
  
• make test-zesti: A Symbolic Execution Solution for Improving Regression Testing
  Paul Dan Marinescu, Cristian Cadar
  International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2012)
  Zurich, Switzerland, June 2012
  
  
• Symbolic Execution for Software Testing in Practice – Preliminary Assessment
  Cristian Cadar, Patrice Godefroid, Sarfraz Khurshid, Corina Pasareanu, Koushik Sen, Nikolai Tillmann, Willem Visser
  International Conference on Software Engineering, Impact Project (ICSE Impact 2011)
  Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, May 2011
  
  
• Symbolic Crosschecking of Floating-Point and SIMD Code
  Peter Collingbourne, Cristian Cadar, Paul H. J. Kelly
  European Conference on Computer Systems (EuroSys 2011)
  Salzburg, Austria, April 2011
  
  
• Multiplicity Computing: A Vision of Software Engineering for Next-Generation Computing Platform Applications
  Cristian Cadar, Peter Pietzuch, Alexander Wolf
  FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research (FoSER 2010)
  Santa Fe, NM, November 2010
  
  
• KLEE: Unassisted and Automatic Generation of High-Coverage Tests for Complex Systems Programs
  Cristian Cadar, Daniel Dunbar, Dawson Engler
  USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 2008)
  San Diego, CA, December 2008
  Awarded the Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award
  
  
• EXE: Automatically Generating Inputs of Death
  Cristian Cadar, Vijay Ganesh, Peter Pawlowski, David Dill, Dawson Engler
  ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC)
  Volume 12, No. 2, December 2008
  This is an extended version of our CCS 2006 paper
  
  
• Preventing memory error exploits with WIT
  Periklis Akritidis, Cristian Cadar, Costin Raiciu, Manuel Costa, Miguel Castro
  IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland Security 2008)
  Berkeley/Oakland, California, May 2008
  
  
• Data Randomization
  Cristian Cadar, Periklis Akritidis, Manuel Costa, Jean-Phillipe Martin, Miguel Castro
  Microsoft Research TR-120-2008
  
  
• RWset: Attacking Path Explosion in Constraint-Based Test Generation
  Peter Boonstoppel, Cristian Cadar, Dawson Engler
  ETAPS Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2008)
  Budapest, Hungary, March-April 2008
  
  
• Automatically Generating Malicious Disks using Symbolic Execution
  Junfeng Yang, Can Sar, Paul Twohey, Cristian Cadar, Dawson Engler
  IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland Security 2006)
  Berkeley/Oakland, California, May 2006
  
  
• Execution Generated Test Cases: How to Make Systems Code Crash Itself
  Cristian Cadar, Dawson Engler
  International SPIN Workshop on Model Checking of Software (invited paper)
  San Francisco, CA, August 2005
  A longer version of this paper appeared as Stanford Technical Report CSTR-2005-04
  
  
• Exploring the Acceptability Envelope
  Martin Rinard, Cristian Cadar, Huu Hai Nguyen
  Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications Companion (OOPSLA 2005 Companion)
  San Diego, CA, October 2005
  
  
• Enhancing Server Availability and Security Through Failure-Oblivious Computing
  Martin Rinard, Cristian Cadar, Daniel Dumitran, Daniel Roy, Tudor Leu, William Beebee Jr.
  USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 2004)
  San Francisco, CA, December 2004
  
  

Selected Talks

Recent talks are available on the Software Reliability Group website. Some older talks are included below:

• KLEE: Effective Testing of Systems Programs
  Available in PPSX and PDF format
  Versions of this talk were presented at:
  • Stanford Security Workshop 2009, Stanford, CA, USA, April 16, 2009
  • USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 2008), San Diego, CA, USA, December 9, 2008
  • Workshop on State-space Exploration for Automated Testing (SSEAT 2008), Seattle, WA, USA, July 24, 2008
  
  
• RWset: Attacking Path Explosion in Constraint-Based Test Generation
  Available in PPSX and PDF format
  ETAPS Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2008)
  Budapest, Hungary, April 2, 2008
  
  
• EXE: Automatically Generating Inputs of Death
  Available in PPSX and PDF format
  ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2006)
  Alexandria, Virginia, USA, November 2, 2006
  
  
• A Dynamic Technique for Eliminating Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities (and Other Memory Errors)
  Available in PPSX and PDF format
  Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 2004)
  Tucson, AZ, December 8, 2004
  
  

Teaching

• Software Reliability (4th year/MSc): Since 2015-16

Past Teaching

• Operating Systems (2nd year): Spring 09-10, Spring 10-11, Spring 11-12, Spring 12-13, Spring 13-14, Spring 14-15, Spring 15-16
• Software Engineering Practice (MSc): Spring 09-10, Spring 10-11, Spring 11-12, Spring 12-13
• MSc Group Project Coordinator: Spring 10-11, Spring 11-12
• Networks and Communications (2nd year): Autumn 10-11, Autumn 11-12

Service

Please consider submitting papers to the following conferences and workshops:

2024:

2023:

2022:

2021:

2020:

2019:

2018:

2017:

2016:

2015:

2014:

2013:

2012

2011

2010

Software

• KLEE is now open source! Please go to the new KLEE website for more details
• Other software is available through the SRG Projects page

Contact and social media

• Email: c.cadar@imperial.ac.uk
  
  
• Twitter: @c_cadar
  
  
• Blog: ccadar.blogspot.co.uk
  
  
• Address:
  Department of Computing
  Imperial College London
  180 Queen's Gate
  London SW7 2AZ, UK

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© Cristian Cadar 2000-2023. Last updated: November 2023