Target function location based on code coverage analysis

Abstract

How to locate the target function faster and more accurately is a key problem of Automatic Reverse-Engineering of Software Programs. In order to solve this problem, a target function location method based on code coverage analysis is proposed. Firstly, it obtains function call information of the program and calculate the suspicious rate of each function. And then a stability factor is proposed to reduce the noise functions. Finally, the target function is successfully located. The experimental results show the method proposed has linear time complexity. For software programs with million function calls, it can accurately locate the target function within several minutes, the performance and accuracy are greately improved compared to the contrast methods.