Performing binary fuzzing using concolic execution

In this thesis, I designed and implemented Confuzzer, a system that fuzzes certain classes of closed source binaries using Concolic Execution techniques in order to find vulnerable inputs into programs that could be leveraged by attackers to compromise systems that the binary might be running on. The design of this system allows improved performance on fuzzing programs that have a large branching factor or are heavily based on complex conditionals determining control flow. The system is designed around a Taint/Crash Analysis tool combined with a Path Exploration system to generate symbolic representations of the paths, generating a new set of inputs to be tested. These are implemented using a combination of Intel PIN for the Taint Analysis and Python/z3 for the Path Exploration. Results show that while this system is very slow in instrumenting each run of the binary, we are able to reduce the search space to a manageable level compared to other existing tools.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Valdez, Steven (Steven D.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nickolai Zeldovich.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100620

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100620