Automatic error elimination by horizontal code transfer across multiple applications

Abstract

We present Code Phage (CP), a system for automatically transferring correct code from donor applications into recipient applications that process the same inputs to successfully eliminate errors in the recipient. Experimental results using seven donor applications to eliminate ten errors in seven recipient applications highlight the ability of CP to transfer code across applications to eliminate out of bounds access, integer overflow, and divide by zero errors. Because CP works with binary donors with no need for source code or symbolic information, it supports a wide range of use cases. To the best of our knowledge, CP is the first system to automatically transfer code across multiple applications.