Title
Buffer Overflow Vulnerability Prediction from x86 Executables Using Static Analysis and Machine Learning
Abstract
Mining static code attributes for predicting software vulnerabilities has received some attention recently. There are a number of approaches for detecting vulnerabilities from source code, but commercial off the shelf components are, in general, distributed in binary form. Before using such third-party components it is imperative to check for presence of vulnerabilities. We investigate the use of static analysis and machine learning for predicting buffer overflow vulnerabilities from binaries in this study. To mitigate buffer overflows, developers typically perform size checks and input validation. We propose static code attributes characterizing buffer usage and defense mechanisms implemented in the code for preventing buffer overflows. The proposed approach starts by identifying potential vulnerable statement constructs during binary program analysis and extracts static code attributes for each of them as per proposed characterization scheme to capture buffer usage patterns and defensive mechanisms employed in the code. Data mining methods are then used on these collected code attributes for predicting buffer overflows. Our experimental evaluation on standard buffer overflow benchmark binaries shows that the proposed static code attributes are effective in predicting buffer overflow vulnerabilities.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1109/COMPSAC.2015.78
International Computer Software and Applications Conference
Keywords
Field
DocType
binary static analysis, static code attributes, disassembly, vulnerability prediction, buffer overflow, control and data dependency, buffer usage pattern
x86,Data validation,Memory safety,Source code,Computer science,Static analysis,Real-time computing,Artificial intelligence,Program analysis,Machine learning,Executable,Buffer overflow
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
2
0730-3157
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.38
14
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Bindu Madhavi Padmanabhuni1101.59
Hee Beng Kuan Tan248945.05