Heuristic Search
Heuristic search is a problem-solving strategy that uses informed guesses or rules of thumb to find a solution more efficiently than exhaustive searching. In formal verification, heuristic search is used to guide the exploration of the state space toward potential error states.
Instead of checking every state, the algorithm prioritizes paths that are more likely to contain bugs, such as those involving high-risk operations or complex logic branches. This is crucial when the total state space is too large to check completely.
By focusing the search, developers can find critical vulnerabilities faster, even if they cannot guarantee that the system is entirely bug-free. It is a practical approach for balancing the need for deep security analysis with the limitations of computational time and resources.