Matching machine-code functions in executables within one product line via bioinformatic sequence alignment

Publikationstyp
Conference Paper
Publikationsdatum
2015-11-11
Sprache
English
Author
Wichmann, Arne 
Schupp, Sibylle 
Institut
Softwaresysteme E-16 
TORE-URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11420/9729
Start Page
1
End Page
5
Article Number
7327962
Citation
2015 IEEE 5th Workshop on Mining Unstructured Data, MUD 2015 - Proceedings: 7327962, 1-5 (2015-11-11)
Contribution to Conference
IEEE 5th Workshop on Mining Unstructured Data, MUD 2015 
Publisher DOI
10.1109/MUD.2015.7327962
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84962302480
Publisher
IEEE
In this paper we evaluate whether different executables from the same software product line have similar sequences of machine-code functions. We provide a method of creating matchings of machine-code functions using alignment techniques known from bioinformatics. We map, per function, vectors of code metrics to symbols from an alphabet using machine learning techniques, and construct sequence alignments using off-the-shelf alignment tools. Our evaluation of alignments of glibc versions, musl optimizations, different RedBoot platforms and architectures, and the Linux kernel shows that the above statement holds in all cases except for differing architectures. Our method can therefore be used to match functions in executables for most variations within one product line.
DDC Class
004: Informatik