Formalizing (Web) Standards: An Application of Test and Proof

By Achim D. Brucker and Michael Herzberg.

Most popular technologies are based on informal or semiformal standards that lack a rigid formal semantics. Typical examples include web technologies such as the DOM or HTML, which are defined by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). While there might be API specifications and test cases meant to assert the compliance of a certain implementation, the actual standard is rarely accompanied by a formal model that would lend itself for, e.g., verifying the security or safety properties of real systems.

Even when such a formalization of a standard exists, two important questions arise: first, to what extend does the formal model comply to the standard and, second, to what extend does the implementation comply to the formal model and the assumptions made during the verification? In this paper, we present an approach that brings all three involved artifacts - the (semi-)formal standard, the formalization of the standard, and the implementations - closer together by combining verification, symbolic execution, and specification based testing.

Keywords:
Standard Compliance, Compliance Tests, DOM

Supplementary material:
[ Slides  ]

Please cite this work as follows:
A. D. Brucker and M. Herzberg, “Formalizing (web) standards: An application of test and proof,” in TAP 2018: Tests and proofs, C. Dubois and B. Wolff, Eds. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2018, pp. 159–166. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-92994-1_9. Author copy: https://logicalhacking.com/publications/brucker.ea-standard-compliance-testing-2018/

BibTeX
@InCollection{ brucker.ea:standard-compliance-testing:2018,
  abstract  = {Most popular technologies are based on informal or semiformal
               standards that lack a rigid formal semantics. Typical examples
               include web technologies such as the DOM or HTML, which are
               defined by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working
               Group (WHATWG) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). While
               there might be API specifications and test cases meant to
               assert the compliance of a certain implementation, the actual
               standard is rarely accompanied by a formal model that would
               lend itself for, e.g., verifying the security or safety
               properties of real systems.
               
               Even when such a formalization of a standard exists, two
               important questions arise: first, to what extend does the
               formal model comply to the standard and, second, to what
               extend does the implementation comply to the formal model and
               the assumptions made during the verification? In this paper,
               we present an approach that brings all three involved
               artifacts - the (semi-)formal standard, the formalization of
               the standard, and the implementations - closer together by
               combining verification, symbolic execution, and specification
               based testing.},
  keywords  = {Standard Compliance, Compliance Tests, DOM},
  location  = {Toulouse, France},
  author    = {Achim D. Brucker and Michael Herzberg},
  booktitle = {{TAP} 2018: Tests And Proofs},
  language  = {USenglish},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag },
  address   = {Heidelberg },
  series    = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science },
  number    = {10889},
  editor    = {Cathrine Dubois and Burkhart Wolff},
  title     = {Formalizing (Web) Standards: An Application of Test and
               Proof},
  areas     = {formal methods, software engineering},
  year      = {2018},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-92994-1_9},
  pages     = {159--166},
  isbn      = {978-3-642-38915-3},
  note      = {Author copy: \url{https://logicalhacking.com/publications/brucker.ea-standard-compliance-testing-2018/}},
  pdf       = {https://logicalhacking.com/publications/brucker.ea-standard-compliance-testing-2018/brucker.ea-standard-compliance-testing-2018.pdf},
}