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WasmCFuzz: Structure-aware Fuzzing for Wasm Compilers

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Abstract

WebAssembly (Wasm) has emerged as a pivotal technology for web applications, offering near-native execution speeds and bolstered security through sandboxed execution. Despite its widespread adoption in major browsers, the rapid evolution of Wasm introduces novel attack surfaces, particularly in Wasm compilers. The challenge of Wasm compiler testing lies in producing semi-valid Wasm samples that are structurally sound enough to bypass initial checks yet sufficiently unique to probe for vulnerabilities. In response, we introduce WasmCFuzz, an innovative fuzzing approach that utilizes AFL-generated random bytes to create semi-valid Wasm formats. This method effectively balances structural validity with the potential to uncover compiler corner cases. Our comprehensive evaluation demonstrates that WasmCFuzz not only outperforms existing methods like Wasm-smith and WAfuzzer but also uncovers 13 previously unidentified bugs in mainstream browsers within just a week. These findings highlight WasmCFuzz's capability in enhancing the security of Wasm compilers, marking a significant step forward in Wasm compiler testing.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2024 IEEE/ACM 4th International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems and 2024 IEEE/ACM Second International Workshop on Software Vulnerability, EnCyCriS/SVM 2024
EditorsCoralie Esnoul, Eunkyoung Jee, Triet Huynh Minh Le, Ali Babar, Ricardo Colomo-Palacios, Awais Rashid
Place of PublicationNew York NY USA
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages1-5
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9798400705656
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event4th International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems and 2024 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Software Vulnerability 2024: held in conjunction with the 46th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2024 - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 15 Apr 202415 Apr 2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3643662 (Proceedings)
https://conf.researchr.org/home/icse-2024/encycris-svm-2024 (Website)

Conference

Conference4th International Workshop on Engineering and Cybersecurity of Critical Systems and 2024 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Software Vulnerability 2024
Abbreviated titleEnCyCriS/SVM 2024
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period15/04/2415/04/24
Internet address

Keywords

  • browser
  • fuzzing
  • WebAssembly

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