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12th USENIX Security Symposium — Abstract
Pp. 121-136 of the Proceedings
High Coverage Detection of Input-Related Security Faults
Eric Larson and Todd Austin, University of Michigan
Abstract
Improperly bounded
program inputs present a major class of program defects. In secure
applications, these bugs can be exploited by malicious users, allowing them to
overwrite buffers and execute harmful code. In this paper, we present a high
coverage dynamic technique for detecting software faults caused by improperly
bounded program inputs. Our approach is novel in that it retains the advantages
of dynamic bug detection, scope and precision; while at the same time,
relaxing the requirement that the user specify the input that exposes the bug.
To implement our approach, inputs are shadowed by additional state that
characterize the allowed bounds of input-derived variables. Program operations
and decision points may alter the shadowed state associated with input variables.
Potentially hazardous program sites, such as an array references and string
functions, are checked against the entire range of values that the user might
specify. The approach found several bugs including two high-risk security bugs
in a recent version of OpenSSH.
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