ST-CRTS: Dynamic Unmasking of Compiler Optimizations and Obfuscations

背景在这个项目中，PI认为，许多与软件可靠性和软件保护相关的应用程序需要自动比较程序的原始版本和转换后的版本。这种比较的目标是匹配来自彼此对应的两个版本的指令。PI将这种自动揭开程序转换的影响的过程称为匹配。智能优点：PI建议开发几乎准确的动态匹配算法，该算法被设计为使用执行历史来找到在执行期间看起来不同但行为相同的代码之间的映射。-在二进制级别执行匹配。-使用匹配定期比较两个版本的执行历史，并报告不匹配的语句集。-使用Diablo生成静态程序表示的技术和处理Valgrind生成的压缩跟踪的运行时算法的组合正在实施，以生成完整的执行跟踪(WET)。-存放在湿数据库中，并由动态匹配模块访问以进行匹配。广泛影响PI已让2名博士生参与拟议研究的前期工作。这些学生预计将在拟议项目结束前完成他们的学位。此外，由国际编程协会教授的其他程序设计语言课程的研究生和本科生将在他们的课堂项目中使用该基础设施。这个项目产生的研究成果将初步纳入由该协会教授的上述课程中。随后，PI将开发一门关于动态技术的专门课程。准备的实验和讲座将通过项目网站免费提供。一旦这样的课程准备好了，PI还将承担一个撰写项目，以在更广泛的动态分析领域产生正式的文本。尽管这项研究的初始目标是开发用于优化和混淆代码的动态揭密技术，但正在开发的动态信息分析基础设施也将在其他研究领域中有用，如性能分析和调试。因此，所产生的基础设施也将对其他研究人员产生更广泛的影响。

BackgroundIn this project the PI argues that many applications, related to software reliability and software protection, require automated comparison of original and the transformed versions of the program.The goal of this comparison is to match instructions from two versions that correspond to each other. The PI refers to this process of automatically unmasking the effects of program transformations as matching.Intellectual Merit:-The PI propose to develop nearly accurate dynamic matching algorithms which are designed to -Use execution histories to find mapping between code that appears to be different but behaves the same during an execution. -Perform matching at binary level.-Use matching to compare execution histories of the two versions at regular intervals and report the set of unmatched statements. -Combination of techniques that use Diablo to produce a static program representation and runtime algorithms that process Valgrind generated traces for compression are being implemented to produce Whole Execution Traces (WETs). -Deposit in a WET database and accessed by the Dynamic Matching module to carry out matching.Broader ImpactThe PI has involved 2 PhD students in the preliminary work carried out for the proposed research.These students are expected to finish their degrees by the end of the proposed project. In addition, other graduate and undergraduate students in Programming Languages classes taught by the PI will use the infrastructure in their class projects.Initially the research results produced by this project will be incorporated into the above courses taught by the PI. Later PI will develop a dedicated course on Dynamic Techniques. The labs and lectures prepared will be freely made available through the project website. Once such a course is ready, the PI will also undertake a book writing project to produce a formal text in the broader area of dynamic analysis.Although the initial goal of this research is to develop dynamic unmasking techniques for optimized and obfuscated code, the dynamic information analysis infrastructure that is being developed will also be useful in other areas of research such as performance analysis and debugging. Therefore, the infrastructure produced will be have a broader impact by being useful to other researchers as well.