{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33382"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33382","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Visualizing Memory Utilization for the Purpose of Vulnerability Analysis","abstract":"The expansion of the internet over recent years has resulted in an increase in digital attacks on computers. Most attacks, including the more dangerous ones, directly target program vulnerabilities. The increase in attacks has prompted a need to develop new ways to classify, detect, and avoid vulnerabilities. The effectiveness of these goals relies on the development of new methods and tools that facilitate the process of detecting vulnerabilities and exploits. This thesis presents the development of a tool that provides a visual representation of main memory for the purpose of security analysis. The tool provides new insight into memory utilization by software; users are able to see memory utilization as execution time progression, visually distinguish between memory behaviors (allocations, writes, etc), and visually observe special relationships between memory locations. The insight enables users to search for visual evidence that software is vulnerable, violated, or utilizing memory incorrectly. The development process for our visual tool has three stages: (1) identifying the memory utilization policies of the Windows 32-bit operating system; (2) identifying the data required for visual representations of memory and then implementing one possible method to capture the data; and (3) enumerating and implementing requirements for a memory tool that generates visual representations of memory for the purpose of vulnerability and exploit analysis.","abstract_html":"The expansion of the internet over recent years has resulted in an increase in digital attacks on computers. Most attacks, including the more dangerous ones, directly target program vulnerabilities. The increase in attacks has prompted a need to develop new ways to classify, detect, and avoid vulnerabilities. The effectiveness of these goals relies on the development of new methods and tools that facilitate the process of detecting vulnerabilities and exploits. This thesis presents the development of a tool that provides a visual representation of main memory for the purpose of security analysis. The tool provides new insight into memory utilization by software; users are able to see memory utilization as execution time progression, visually distinguish between memory behaviors (allocations, writes, etc), and visually observe special relationships between memory locations. The insight enables users to search for visual evidence that software is vulnerable, violated, or utilizing memory incorrectly. The development process for our visual tool has three stages: (1) identifying the memory utilization policies of the Windows 32-bit operating system; (2) identifying the data required for visual representations of memory and then implementing one possible method to capture the data; and (3) enumerating and implementing requirements for a memory tool that generates visual representations of memory for the purpose of vulnerability and exploit analysis.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["McConnell, William Charles"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"Computer Science","degree_department":"Computer Science","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Arthur, James D."],"committee_members":["North, Christopher L.","Balci, Osman"],"year":2008,"date_issued":"2008-05-28","date_published":"2008-05-28","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:49Z","subjects":["main memory","memory API","data capturing","function hooks","exploits","security","resource utilization","visualization","software vulnerabilities"],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-06022008-034754"],"render_values":[{"text":"etd-06022008-034754","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33382","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Arthur, James D."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["North, Christopher L.","Balci, Osman"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["McConnell, William Charles"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-03-14T20:39:13Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-03-14T20:39:13Z","2008-07-02"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2008-05-28"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["main memory","memory API","data capturing","function hooks","exploits","security","resource utilization","visualization","software vulnerabilities"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-06022008-034754"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33382"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The expansion of the internet over recent years has resulted in an increase in digital attacks on computers. Most attacks, including the more dangerous ones, directly target program vulnerabilities. The increase in attacks has prompted a need to develop new ways to classify, detect, and avoid vulnerabilities. The effectiveness of these goals relies on the development of new methods and tools that facilitate the process of detecting vulnerabilities and exploits. This thesis presents the development of a tool that provides a visual representation of main memory for the purpose of security analysis. The tool provides new insight into memory utilization by software; users are able to see memory utilization as execution time progression, visually distinguish between memory behaviors (allocations, writes, etc), and visually observe special relationships between memory locations. The insight enables users to search for visual evidence that software is vulnerable, violated, or utilizing memory incorrectly. The development process for our visual tool has three stages: (1) identifying the memory utilization policies of the Windows 32-bit operating system; (2) identifying the data required for visual representations of memory and then implementing one possible method to capture the data; and (3) enumerating and implementing requirements for a memory tool that generates visual representations of memory for the purpose of vulnerability and exploit analysis."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Visualizing Memory Utilization for the Purpose of Vulnerability Analysis"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Arthur, James D."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["North, Christopher L.","Balci, Osman"],"dc:contributor.department":["Computer Science"],"dc:creator":["McConnell, William Charles"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2014-03-14T20:39:13Z"],"dc:date.available":["2014-03-14T20:39:13Z","2008-07-02"],"dc:date.issued":["2008-05-28"],"dc:description.abstract":["The expansion of the internet over recent years has resulted in an increase in digital attacks on computers. Most attacks, including the more dangerous ones, directly target program vulnerabilities. The increase in attacks has prompted a need to develop new ways to classify, detect, and avoid vulnerabilities. The effectiveness of these goals relies on the development of new methods and tools that facilitate the process of detecting vulnerabilities and exploits. This thesis presents the development of a tool that provides a visual representation of main memory for the purpose of security analysis. The tool provides new insight into memory utilization by software; users are able to see memory utilization as execution time progression, visually distinguish between memory behaviors (allocations, writes, etc), and visually observe special relationships between memory locations. The insight enables users to search for visual evidence that software is vulnerable, violated, or utilizing memory incorrectly. The development process for our visual tool has three stages: (1) identifying the memory utilization policies of the Windows 32-bit operating system; (2) identifying the data required for visual representations of memory and then implementing one possible method to capture the data; and (3) enumerating and implementing requirements for a memory tool that generates visual representations of memory for the purpose of vulnerability and exploit analysis."],"dc:description.degree":["Master of Science"],"dc:identifier.other":["etd-06022008-034754"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33382"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["main memory","memory API","data capturing","function hooks","exploits","security","resource utilization","visualization","software vulnerabilities"],"dc:title":["Visualizing Memory Utilization for the Purpose of Vulnerability Analysis"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:49Z"}