This class is designed to introduce students to the best tools and technology available for automating vulnerability discovery and crash triage with a focus on delivering a practical approach to applying this technology in real deployments at any scale.
Through an applied understanding of introductory program analysis and binary translation, techniques for finding various bug classes and methods for improved crash debugging will be discussed. We will take a deep dive into fuzzing, covering all aspects of this practical approach to finding bugs. As the most approachable and versatile of the available tools, the student will apply various fuzzing techniques to several real-world pieces of software. Students will learn strategies for analyzing attack surface, writing grammars, and generating effective corpus. We will explore in detail the latest innovations such as harnessing code coverage for guided evolutionary fuzzing and symbolic reasoning for concolic fuzzing.
We approach crash analysis through the lens of scriptable debuggers and program analysis. We will apply tools like reverse debugging and memory debuggers to assist in interactively diagnosing root cause of crashes. Then we will leverage the power of dynamic taint tracking and graph slicing to help isolate the path of user controlled input in the program and identify the exact input bytes influencing a crash. Lastly, we will look at possible ways to aid in determining severity of a vulnerability.
This class will focus on x86/x64 architecture and target file parsers, network parsers, browsers, and kernel interfaces on both Windows and Linux environments.
This class is meant for professional developers or security researchers looking to add an automation component to their software security analysis. Students wanting to learn a programmatic and tool driven approach to analyzing software vulnerabilities and crash triage will benefit from this course.
Students should be prepared to tackle challenging and diverse subject matter and be comfortable writing functions in in C/C++ and python to complete exercises involving completing plugins for the discussed platforms. Attendees should have basic experience with debugging native x86/x64 memory corruption vulnerabilities on Linux or Windows.
Students should have the latest VMware Player, Workstation, or Fusion working on their machine.
Analysis of generational and mutational fuzzing
Fuzzing file and network parser with coverage guided fuzzing
Best practices for high performance fuzzing
Time Travel Debugging
Taint assisted root cause analysis
Fuzzing browsers with evolutionary grammar fuzzing
Dynamic Binary Translation for Fuzzing and Triage
Fuzzing parsers with WinAFL
Fuzzing kernels
Symbolic and Concolic Execution
Richard Johnson is a computer security specialist with a focus on software vulnerability analysis. Currently Research Lead for the Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group at Cisco Systems, Inc., Richard offers over 15 years of expertise and leadership in the software security industry. Current responsibilities include research and development of advanced fuzzing and crash analysis technologies facilitating the automation of the vulnerability triage and discovery process. Richard has delivered training and presented annually at top-tier industry conferences worldwide for over a decade and is an invited speaker at several leading events. Richard was also co-founder of the Uninformed Journal and is on the committee for the USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies.