LabVIEW application with embedded Lua scripting for a laser based measuring machine

Published ArticleThis paper presents the work on the development of software for an industrial laser based measuring machine. The goal being not only for a working application, but also to optimise the development process and ease future maintenance of the software. LabVIEW with its graphical method of programming allows engineers to easily create large software applications to control industrial processes and machines. This software if not properly designed can lead to stability and maintenance problems. The experience gained from developing, maintaining and improving a LabVIEW application for a laser measuring machine, results in the integration of the Lua scripting language into LabVIEW. It is shown how the embedded Lua allows the LabVIEW software application for the machine to be structured for simpler development and maintenance

Concolic Execution of NMap Scripts for Honeyfarm Generation

Attackers rely upon a vast array of tools for automating attacksagainst vulnerable servers and services. It is often the case thatwhen vulnerabilities are disclosed, scripts for detecting and exploit-ing them in tools such asNmapandMetasploitare released soonafter, leading to the immediate identification and compromise ofvulnerable systems. Honeypots, honeynets, tarpits, and other decep-tive techniques can be used to slow attackers down, however, such approaches have difficulty keeping up with the sheer number of vulnerabilities being discovered and attacking scripts that are being released. To address this issue, this paper describes an approach for applying concolic execution on attacking scripts in Nmap in order to automatically generate lightweight fake versions of the vulnerable services that can fool the scripts. By doing so in an automated and scalable manner, the approach can enable rapid deployment of custom honeyfarms that leverage the results of concolic execution to trick an attacker\u27s script into returning a result chosen by the honeyfarm, making the script unreliable for the use by the attacker

Semántica operacional y su aplicación para el estudio de recolección de basura, en Lua 5.2

Tesis (Doctor en Ciencias de la Computación)--Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física y Computación, 2021.Lua es un lenguaje de programación imperativo de scripting, que ofrece tipado dinámico, manejo automático de memoria, facilidades para la descripción de datos, y mecanismos de metaprogramación para adaptar el lenguaje a dominios específicos. Es utilizado en proyectos de diversa naturaleza, desde desarrollo de juegos, de manera notable en juegos “AAA”, desarrollo de plugins, firewall de aplicaciones web, y en sistemas embebidos. Gracias al éxito de Lua es posible encontrar diversas implementaciones alternativas y analizadores estáticos. Sin embargo, la naturaleza informal de la especificación del lenguaje implica que quienes desarrollan esas herramientas no pueden proveer garantías formales de corrección para las mismas. En este trabajo presentamos una formalización de la semántica operacional de Lua 5.2, incluyendo recolección de basura (GC) y sus interfaces (finalizadores y tablas débiles; una forma de implementar referencias débiles). Validamos la semántica mediante su mecanización, utilizando PLT Redex, y el testeo de la misma con respecto a la suite de tests del intérprete oficial de Lua. A su vez, utilizamos las facilidades ofrecidas por PLT Redex para la mecanización de sistemas formales y testeo aleatorio de propiedades, para obtener evidencia de la propiedad de progreso de la semántica. Para GC proveemos un framework para razonar formalmente sobre propiedades de cualquier algoritmo de GC basado en un criterio sintáctico. Dentro del framework podemos formalizar y esbozar la demostración de propiedades sobre GC, incluyendo su corrección (sin considerar sus interfaces). La semántica formalizada y su mecanización podrían ayudar a proveer garantías formales de corrección para herramientas que realicen análisis estático de programas Lua, como también en el prototipado de nuevos conceptos de programación y extensiones para Lua.Lua is a lightweight imperative scripting language, featuring dynamic typing, automatic memory management, data description facilities, and metaprogramming mechanisms to adapt the language to specific domains. It is extensively used in projects ranging from game development, most notably by “AAA” games, plugin development, web application firewalls, and embedded systems. Thanks to Lua’s success,several alternative implementations and static analyzers can be found in the wild. However, the informal nature of the language’s specification means that developers of those tools cannot provide formal guarantees of correctness for them. In this work we present a formalization of Lua 5.2’s operational semantics, including garbage collection (GC) and its interfaces (finalizers and weak tables; a particular implementation of weak references). We validate our model by mechanizing it, using PLT Redex, and testing it against the test suite of the reference interpreter of Lua. Also, we use the features provided by PLT Redex for the mechanization of formal systems and random testing of properties, to gather evidence for the progress property of the semantics. For GC we provide a framework for formal reasoning of properties of any GC algorithm based on a syntactic criterion. Within the given framework we are able to formalize and sketch the proof of several claims about GC, including its correctness (without its interfaces). The formalized semantics and its mechanization could help to provide formal guarantees of correctness for tools that perform static analysis of Lua programs, as well as for the prototyping of new features and extensions to Lua.publishedVersionFil: Soldevila Raffa, Mallku Ernesto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física y Computación; Argentina