Static Analysis Tool Exposition (SATE)

SATE is a recurring non-competitive study of static analysis tool effectiveness, aiming at improving tools and increasing public awareness and adoption. Briefly, participating tool makers run their static analyzer on a set of programs, then researchers led by NIST analyze the tool outputs. Everyone shares results and experiences at a workshop. The analysis report is made publicly available later. 

SATE's purpose is NOT to evaluate nor choose the "best" tools. Tools have different strengths. Rather, it is aimed at proposing a methodology to assess tool effectiveness. Others can use this methodology to determine which tools fit their requirements. SATE’s goals are: 

• To enable empirical research based on large test sets,
• To encourage improvement of tools,
• To boost public awareness of tools by objectively demonstrating their use on real software.

To date, the NIST SAMATE project has organized six Static Analysis Tool Expositions:

• SATE VI reported at the SATE VI workshop, September 2019.
• SATE V reported at the SATE V workshop, March 2014. The report is available here.
• SATE IV reported at the SATE IV workshop, March 2012.
• SATE 2010 reported at the SATE 2010 workshop, October 2010.
• SATE 2009 reported at the SATE 2009 workshop, November 2009.
• SATE 2008 reported at the Static Analysis Workshop, June 2008.