NDSS 2018 Superset Disassembly: Statically Rewriting x86 Binaries Without Heuristics

NDSS 2018 Session 5A: Software Security
04 Superset Disassembly: Statically Rewriting x86 Binaries Without Heuristics

SUMMARY
Static binary rewriting is a core technology for many systems and security applications, including profiling, optimization, and software fault isolation. While many static binary rewriters have been developed over the past few decades, most make various assumptions about the binary, such as requiring correct disassembly, cooperation from compilers, or access to debugging symbols or relocation entries. This paper presents MULTIVERSE, a new binary rewriter that is able to rewrite Intel CISC binaries without these assumptions. Two fundamental techniques are developed to achieve this: (1) a superset disassembly that completely disassembles the binary code into a superset of instructions in which all legal instructions fall, and (2) an instruction rewriter that is able to relocate all instructions to any other location by mediating all indirect control flow transfers and redirecting them to the correct new addresses. A prototype implementation of MULTIVERSE and evaluation on SPECint 2006 benchmarks shows that MULTIVERSE is able to rewrite all of the testing binaries with a reasonable runtime overhead for the new rewritten binaries. Simple static instrumentation using MULTIVERSE and its comparison with dynamic instrumentation shows that the approach achieves better average performance. Finally, the security applications of MULTIVERSE are exhibited by using it to implement a shadow stack.

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PAPER

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AUTHORS
Erick Bauman (University of Texas at Dallas)
Zhiqiang Lin (University of Texas at Dallas)
Kevin Hamlen (University of Texas at Dallas)

Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 2018, 18-21 February 2018, Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa in San Diego, California.

ABOUT NDSS
The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.

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[aitan]

This is so cool. Almost makes me want to learn Assembly... almost.