The Most Comprehensive Static Analysis Toolsuite for Ada

CodePeer helps developers gain a deep understanding of their code and build more reliable and secure software systems.

CodePeer is an Ada source code analyzer that detects run-time and logic errors. It assesses potential bugs before program execution, serving as an automated peer reviewer, helping to find errors easily at any stage of the development life-cycle. CodePeer helps you improve the quality of your code and makes it easier for you to perform safety and/or security analysis.

CodePeer is a stand-alone tool that runs on Windows and Linux platforms and may be used with any standard Ada compiler or fully integrated into the GNAT Pro development environment. It can detect several of the “Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors” in the Common Weakness Enumeration. CodePeer supports all versions of Ada (83, 95, 2005, 2012).

CodePeer has been qualified as a Verification Tool under the DO-178B and EN 50128 software standards.

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See CodePeer in Action

Watch a series of demos providing a high-level overview and the latest features of CodePeer. CodePeer Demos »

Detecting problems early in the development life-cycle is critical to keeping your project on schedule and on budget.

Cost Of Fixing Errors

CodePeer’s advanced static error detection finds bugs before programs are run. By mathematically analyzing every line of code and considering every possible input and every path through the program, CodePeer can be used very early in the development life-cycle to identify problems when they are much less costly to repair. The tool can also be used retrospectively on existing code bases, to detect latent vulnerabilities.

CodePeer uses a unique “bottom-up” approach where each subprogram is analyzed separately, with its effects summarized / propagated for caller analysis. This enables CodePeer to scale up to very large applications, and also allows partial analysis (e.g., a library or even a specific unit without the enclosing context) with no need for a driver or stubs. In addition, CodePeer can take advantage of multicore architectures to significantly speed up its running time.


CodePeer Features and Toolset

CodePeer will detect the following potential errors

  • qualified Failure of predefined run-time checks, including buffer overflow, numeric overflow, null pointer dereference, and division by zero
  • qualified Use of uninitialized variables
  • Unreachable, redundant, or useless code
  • Concurrency faults (data race conditions)
  • Failure of user-defined checks, including pre/postconditions, assertions, type invariants, and subtype predicates

CodePeer also comes with additional tools

  • qualified - Coding standard checker (GNATcheck)
  • qualified - Features/tools marked with this icon have been qualified with respect to one or more software certification standards
  • Metrics calculator / reporter (GNATmetric)

CodePeer is integrated with GNAT Studio and GNATbench IDEs and with a web server for viewing its HTML output. It also comes with a plug-in for Jenkins (continuous builder) and GNATdashboard.

A Multipurpose, Interdisciplinary Tool for the Whole Team

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Developers, while writing their code, to detect and thus prevent (local) problems prior to integration of their work

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Reviewers, to annotate code where potential problems have been detected, such as specific CWE-related issues

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Project managers and quality engineers, to track the evolution of vulnerabilities on a day-by-day basis and thus quickly identify newly introduced problems

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Software auditors, to conduct “one-shot” analyses that assess overall vulnerabilities, hot spots, or compliance with quality standards

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Certification Engineers, to reduce the effort needed for safety or security certification

V Cycle

A CWE Compatible Tool

CodePeer has been designated as CWE-Compatible by the MITRE Corporation's Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Compatibility and Effectiveness Program and can detect a multitude of code weaknesses, including several that are among, or are in the same class as, the CWE’s Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors.

CodePeer’s advanced static error detection finds bugs before programs are run. By mathematically analyzing every line of code, and considering every possible input and every path through the program, CodePeer can be used very early in the development life-cycle to identify problems when they are much less costly to repair. The tool can also be used retrospectively on existing code bases, to detect latent vulnerabilities.

CWE-120 (Classic Buffer Overflow)
“The program copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow.”

CWE-131 (Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size)
“The software does not correctly calculate the size to be used when allocating a buffer, which could lead to a buffer overflow.”

CWE-190 (Integer Overflow or Wraparound)
“The software performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound, when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This can introduce other weaknesses when the calculation is used for resource management or execution control.”

CodePeer will also detect the following CWE weaknesses:

CWE weakness Description
CWE 119, 120, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131 Buffer overflow/underflow
CWE 136, 137 Variant record field violation, Use of incorrect type in inheritance hierarchy
CWE 190, 191 Numeric overflow/underflow
CWE 362, 366 Race condition
CWE 369 Division by zero
CWE 457 Use of uninitialized variable
CWE 476 Null pointer dereference
CWE 561 Dead (unreachable) code
CWE 563 Unused or redundant assignement
CWE 570 Expression is always false
CWE 571 Expression is always true
CWE 628Incorrect arguments in call
CWE 667Improper locking
CWE 682 Incorrect calculation
CWE 820 Missing synchronization
CWE 821 Incorrect synchronization
CWE 835 Infinite loop

Qualified For DO-178B and EN 50128

CodePeer has been qualified as a Verification Tool under the DO-178B software standard for commercial airborne systems, automating a number of activities associated with that standard’s objectives for software accuracy and consistency. CodePeer has also been qualified for EN 50128, the highest international safety integrity standard for software in railway control and protection systems. The EN 50128 qualification material addresses boundary value analysis (detecting errors such as buffer overflow), control flow analysis (detecting errors such as unreachable code), and data flow analysis (detecting errors such as references to uninitialized variables).

Customer Projects: CodePeer

  • UTC Aerospace Systems

    Digital Terrain System Requiring DO-178B Certification

    CodePeer has been selected by Atlantic Inertial Systems Limited, a UTC Aerospace Systems company in the U.K., for usage on its TERPROM® digital terrain system for military transport aircraft.

  • Saab

    Land and Naval Surveillance and Defense Systems

    Saab Electronic Defence Systems (Sweden) has adopted the CodePeer static analyzer tool for use on the GIRAFFE project. The GIRAFFE project is a family of land and naval radar-based surveillance and air defense command and control systems.

  • Siemens

    Railway Control System

    The Mobility Division of Siemens Switzerland Ltd., has selected GNAT Pro, along with the CodePeer static analysis tool, to develop the next generation of its railway control and information system.

View all customer projects »

Expert Support

Integral to every one of our products are the consulting and support services we provide to our customers. While every company says they offer excellent support, for us it‘s a critical part of our business model and something we take very seriously.

Learn more about Expert Support »