Book Image

Fuzzing Against the Machine

By : Antonio Nappa, Eduardo Blázquez
Book Image

Fuzzing Against the Machine

By: Antonio Nappa, Eduardo Blázquez

Overview of this book

Emulation and fuzzing are among the many techniques that can be used to improve cybersecurity; however, utilizing these efficiently can be tricky. Fuzzing Against the Machine is your hands-on guide to understanding how these powerful tools and techniques work. Using a variety of real-world use cases and practical examples, this book helps you grasp the fundamental concepts of fuzzing and emulation along with advanced vulnerability research, providing you with the tools and skills needed to find security flaws in your software. The book begins by introducing you to two open source fuzzer engines: QEMU, which allows you to run software for whatever architecture you can think of, and American fuzzy lop (AFL) and its improved version AFL++. You’ll learn to combine these powerful tools to create your own emulation and fuzzing environment and then use it to discover vulnerabilities in various systems, such as iOS, Android, and Samsung's Mobile Baseband software, Shannon. After reading the introductions and setting up your environment, you’ll be able to dive into whichever chapter you want, although the topics gradually become more advanced as the book progresses. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained the skills, knowledge, and practice required to find flaws in any firmware by emulating and fuzzing it with QEMU and several fuzzing engines.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Foundations
5
Part 2: Emulation and Fuzzing
9
Part 3: Advanced Concepts
15
Chapter 12: Conclusion and Final Remarks

Why is emulation needed?

The first computer I ever owned as a kid was a 386 machine. I broke it after a few months given my curiosity. My father was so pissed at me that the next computer I got came 10 years later, and it was as Moore predicted – exponentially faster than the one I had previously. It was an Intel Pentium III, and I was already a teenager, so I’d traded my computer for a PlayStation or a simple Game Boy. So, once my 56K modem was connected, a thought started to occur to me. What if… yeah, what if I can execute a PlayStation game on this PC? I just made a very simple analogy – PlayStation works with CD-ROMs, and games are copied through computers, so there should be something in common there.

Internet search engines were not very efficient yet, but forums were full of passionate people eager to help and give advice on many things. Haters and trolls were not so common yet. So, after many afternoons spent searching and wasting money on an...