LDRA tool suite support identifies Security Vulnerabilities and meets the CERT C standard

Although a standard directed by the automotive industry, MISRA has gained widespread acceptance in other vertical markets such as rail, aerospace, military, and medical sectors. LDRA’s rapid adoption of this platform demonstrates the company’s commitment to ensure their clients are able to comply fully with the latest standards and certifications.

MISRA represents a collaboration between automotive manufacturers, component suppliers and engineering consultancies which seeks to promote best practice and commonality in the development of safety-related automotive electronic and other embedded systems through the publication of standard guidelines. Since its launch, the success of MISRA C as a “best practice” solution has not only seen its application spread throughout the worldwide automotive industry, but it has also been increasingly adopted for safety-related and safety-critical software development projects and applications in a wide variety of industries.

With the success of the MISRA C standard, a MISRA C++ working group was established in 2005 to create similar guidelines for the C++ programming language. The MISRA C++:2008 subset is suitable for use in critical systems.

C++ is now being used for automotive systems, as well as in critical systems within other industrial sectors such as aerospace, medical and nuclear. While numerous guidelines existed for the use of C++, prior to the formation of this standard, there was no de-facto standard. Additionally, these did not include guidance for all areas of the C++ language and any errors associated with these that could remain undetected.

The MISRA C++ subset has been produced using techniques similar to those used within MISRA C. It draws together existing C++ guidelines (from many, diverse sources) and significantly enhances the state-of-the-art. The guidelines have been written in a way that makes them accessible to the majority of programmers.

Bill StClair, LDRA Technical Evangelist, commented, “LDRA has an established track record in the area of programming standards enforcement, as well as being a key contributor to the MISRA C++ standard. Through employees Dr. Mike Hennell, LDRA Technical Director and Chris Tapp, who served as MISRA C++ Chairman, LDRA has played an active role on the committee. It’s no surprise that the LDRA tool suite provides the most comprehensive C++ coding standards enforcement available in the market today.”

With the completion of MISRA C++:2008, LDRA comprehensive C++ coding standards has now been enhanced to support MISRA C++:2008. Notably, within the C++ arena, LDRA has also worked with Lockheed Martin in developing the JSF++ AV standard.”

Chris Tapp, LDRA Field Application Engineer and MISRA C++ Chairman commented, “MISRA C++ has drawn together many of the existing guidelines available that help reduce the number of defects found within C++ code. The addition of guidance in the areas of templates, inheritance, and exceptions significantly advances the state-of-the-art in the use of C++ for critical systems.”
Tapp added, “It is the hope of the MISRA consortium that MISRA C++ will gain industry acceptance, and that the adoption of a safer subset will become established as a best practice both by vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers and other industrial sectors. It should also encourage training, and enhance competence in C++ programming at both individual and company levels.”
The support for C++ compliance builds on LDRA’s extremely powerful support for the C language where support is available for the MISRA C:1998 and MISRA C:2004, HIS (Herstellerinitiative Software), GJB (Chinese Military Standard), CAST (China Academy of Space Technology) and CMSE (China Manned Space Engineering project) standards for the C programming language.