CAREER: Re-configurable, Source-Language-Agnostic Decompilation for Binary Programs

职业：可重新配置、与源语言无关的二进制程序反编译

• 批准号: 2146568
• 负责人: Ruoyu Wang
• 金额: $ 54.28万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2146568&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Re; configurable; Source; Language

Software security is crucial in modern times. With or without people’s awareness, from personal computers to smart phones, from critical infrastructure to cyber-physical systems, software is powering tens of billions of devices and systems. These systems are commonly attacked by an adversarial type of software, malware, which is developed and deployed by cyber criminals. Unfortunately, the inaccessibility of source code of software severely hampers the effort of making software and systems more secure from two aspects: (a) Not having access to source code of common software makes it harder for software auditors to discover and mitigate software defects and backdoors; (b) Not having access to source code of malware makes it harder for security analysts to understand and defeat cyber threats in a timely manner. Despite years of research, modern tools and techniques in the field are insufficient in recovering readable source code from software artifacts. Therefore, developing new technologies and tools to effectively recover source code from software will greatly improve the security of modern software, which will in turn benefit the security of the entire society. Decompilation refers to the process of recovering source code from software that is already compiled into machine code. This research project consists of three major research thrusts with the final goal of developing a set of new techniques to support a purpose-specific and source-language-agnostic binary decompiler. First, recognizing different tasks in security analysis may have different end goals (e.g., the readability of a single function versus the understandability of program-level data flows), this project will systematically study common security-specific purposes for decompilation. For each purpose, this project will develop specific decompilation and optimization techniques. Second, this research project will generate new theories and methods to transform monolithic binary decompilation practices into modular, pluggable, and configurable techniques and steps. Finally, the crux of this project will be studying the automated generation of compiler-specific models and techniques for transforming binaries compiled in high-level languages (e.g., Visual Basic 6, C++, Go, and Rust) into high-quality pseudo-source code output that exhibits features in the original high-level programming languages. Besides research publications, this project will produce a fully open-sourced, source-language-agnostic binary decompilation framework, which will facilitate activities in security industry, research, education, and among enthusiasts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

软件安全在现代至关重要。无论人们是否意识到，从个人电脑到智能手机，从关键基础设施到网络物理系统，软件正在为数百亿设备和系统提供动力。这些系统通常受到网络犯罪分子开发和部署的对抗性软件（恶意软件）的攻击。不幸的是，软件源代码的不可访问性从两个方面严重阻碍了软件和系统安全性的提高： (a) 无法访问通用软件的源代码使得软件审计人员更难发现和减轻软件缺陷和后门； (b) 无法访问恶意软件的源代码使安全分析师更难及时了解和击败网络威胁。尽管经过多年的研究，该领域的现代工具和技术不足以从软件工件中恢复可读的源代码。因此，开发新的技术和工具来有效地从软件中恢复源代码将大大提高现代软件的安全性，进而有利于整个社会的安全。 反编译是指从已经编译成机器代码的软件中恢复源代码的过程。该研究项目由三个主要研究重点组成，最终目标是开发一套新技术来支持特定用途和与源语言无关的二进制反编译器。首先，认识到安全分析中的不同任务可能有不同的最终目标（例如，单个函数的可读性与程序级数据流的可理解性），该项目将系统地研究反编译的常见安全特定目的。针对每个目的，该项目将开发特定的反编译和优化技术。其次，该研究项目将产生新的理论和方法，将整体二进制反编译实践转变为模块化、可插拔和可配置的技术和步骤。最后，该项目的关键将是研究自动生成特定于编译器的模型和技术，用于将以高级语言（例如 Visual Basic 6、C++、Go 和 Rust）编译的二进制文件转换为高质量的伪源代码输出，以展示原始高级编程语言的功能。除了研究出版物之外，该项目还将产生一个完全开源、与源语言无关的二进制反编译框架，这将促进安全行业、研究、教育和爱好者之间的活动。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Greenhouse: Single-Service Rehosting of Linux-Based Firmware Binaries in User-Space Emulation

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Hui Jun Tay;Kyle Zeng;J. Vadayath;A. S. Raj;A. Dutcher;T. Reddy;Wil Gibbs;Zion Leonahenahe Basque;Fangzhou Dong;Zack Smith;Adam Doupé;Tiffany Bao;Yan Shoshitaishvili;Ruoyu Wang