diff --git a/README.qemu b/README.qemu new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2035b91 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.qemu @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +========================================================= +High-performance binary-only instrumentation for afl-fuzz +========================================================= + + (See ../docs/README for the general instruction manual.) + +1) Introduction +--------------- + +The code in this directory allows you to build a standalone feature that +leverages the QEMU "user emulation" mode and allows callers to obtain +instrumentation output for black-box, closed-source binaries. This mechanism +can be then used by afl-fuzz to stress-test targets that couldn't be built +with afl-gcc. + +The usual performance cost is 2-5x, which is considerably better than +seen so far in experiments with tools such as DynamoRIO and PIN. + +The idea and much of the implementation comes from Andrew Griffiths. + +2) How to use +------------- + +The feature is implemented with a fairly simple patch to QEMU 2.10.0. The +simplest way to build it is to run ./build_qemu_support.sh. The script will +download, configure, and compile the QEMU binary for you. + +QEMU is a big project, so this will take a while, and you may have to +resolve a couple of dependencies (most notably, you will definitely need +libtool and glib2-devel). + +Once the binaries are compiled, you can leverage the QEMU tool by calling +afl-fuzz and all the related utilities with -Q in the command line. + +Note that QEMU requires a generous memory limit to run; somewhere around +200 MB is a good starting point, but considerably more may be needed for +more complex programs. The default -m limit will be automatically bumped up +to 200 MB when specifying -Q to afl-fuzz; be careful when overriding this. + +In principle, if you set CPU_TARGET before calling ./build_qemu_support.sh, +you should get a build capable of running non-native binaries (say, you +can try CPU_TARGET=arm). This is also necessary for running 32-bit binaries +on a 64-bit system (CPU_TARGET=i386). + +Note: if you want the QEMU helper to be installed on your system for all +users, you need to build it before issuing 'make install' in the parent +directory. + +3) Notes on linking +------------------- + +The feature is supported only on Linux. Supporting BSD may amount to porting +the changes made to linux-user/elfload.c and applying them to +bsd-user/elfload.c, but I have not looked into this yet. + +The instrumentation follows only the .text section of the first ELF binary +encountered in the linking process. It does not trace shared libraries. In +practice, this means two things: + + - Any libraries you want to analyze *must* be linked statically into the + executed ELF file (this will usually be the case for closed-source + apps). + + - Standard C libraries and other stuff that is wasteful to instrument + should be linked dynamically - otherwise, AFL will have no way to avoid + peeking into them. + +Setting AFL_INST_LIBS=1 can be used to circumvent the .text detection logic +and instrument every basic block encountered. + +4) Benchmarking +--------------- + +If you want to compare the performance of the QEMU instrumentation with that of +afl-gcc compiled code against the same target, you need to build the +non-instrumented binary with the same optimization flags that are normally +injected by afl-gcc, and make sure that the bits to be tested are statically +linked into the binary. A common way to do this would be: + +$ CFLAGS="-O3 -funroll-loops" ./configure --disable-shared +$ make clean all + +Comparative measurements of execution speed or instrumentation coverage will be +fairly meaningless if the optimization levels or instrumentation scopes don't +match. + +5) Gotchas, feedback, bugs +-------------------------- + +If you need to fix up checksums or do other cleanup on mutated test cases, see +experimental/post_library/ for a viable solution. + +Do not mix QEMU mode with ASAN, MSAN, or the likes; QEMU doesn't appreciate +the "shadow VM" trick employed by the sanitizers and will probably just +run out of memory. + +Compared to fully-fledged virtualization, the user emulation mode is *NOT* a +security boundary. The binaries can freely interact with the host OS. If you +somehow need to fuzz an untrusted binary, put everything in a sandbox first. + +QEMU does not necessarily support all CPU or hardware features that your +target program may be utilizing. In particular, it does not appear to have +full support for AVX2 / FMA3. Using binaries for older CPUs, or recompiling them +with -march=core2, can help. + +Beyond that, this is an early-stage mechanism, so fields reports are welcome. +You can send them to . + +6) Alternatives: static rewriting +--------------------------------- + +Statically rewriting binaries just once, instead of attempting to translate +them at run time, can be a faster alternative. That said, static rewriting is +fraught with peril, because it depends on being able to properly and fully model +program control flow without actually executing each and every code path. + +If you want to experiment with this mode of operation, there is a module +contributed by Aleksandar Nikolich: + + https://github.com/vrtadmin/moflow/tree/master/afl-dyninst + https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/afl-users/HlSQdbOTlpg + +At this point, the author reports the possibility of hiccups with stripped +binaries. That said, if we can get it to be comparably reliable to QEMU, we may +decide to switch to this mode, but I had no time to play with it yet.