Automated Dynamic Firmware Analysis at Scale: A Case Study on Embedded Web Interfaces

Embedded devices are becoming more widespread, interconnected, and web-enabled than ever. However, recent studies showed that these devices are far from being secure. Moreover, many embedded systems rely on web interfaces for user interaction or administration. Unfortunately, web security is known to be difficult, and therefore the web interfaces of embedded systems represent a considerable attack surface. In this paper, we present the first fully automated framework that applies dynamic firmware analysis techniques to achieve, in a scalable manner, automated vulnerability discovery within embedded firmware images. We apply our framework to study the security of embedded web interfaces running in Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) embedded devices, such as routers, DSL/cable modems, VoIP phones, IP/CCTV cameras. We introduce a methodology and implement a scalable framework for discovery of vulnerabilities in embedded web interfaces regardless of the vendor, device, or architecture. To achieve this goal, our framework performs full system emulation to achieve the execution of firmware images in a software-only environment, i.e., without involving any physical embedded devices. Then, we analyze the web interfaces within the firmware using both static and dynamic tools. We also present some interesting case-studies, and discuss the main challenges associated with the dynamic analysis of firmware images and their web interfaces and network services. The observations we make in this paper shed light on an important aspect of embedded devices which was not previously studied at a large scale. We validate our framework by testing it on 1925 firmware images from 54 different vendors. We discover important vulnerabilities in 185 firmware images, affecting nearly a quarter of vendors in our dataset. These experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach

Detection of the Security Vulnerabilities in Web Applications

The contemporary organizations develop business processes in a very complex environment. The IT&C technologies are used by organizations to improve their competitive advantages. But, the IT&C technologies are not perfect. They are developed in an iterative process and their quality is the result of the lifecycle activities. The audit and evaluation processes are required by the increased complexity of the business processes supported by IT&C technologies. In order to organize and develop a high-quality audit process, the evaluation team must analyze the risks, threats and vulnerabilities of the information system. The paper highlights the security vulnerabilities in web applications and the processes of their detection. The web applications are used as IT&C tools to support the distributed information processes. They are a major component of the distributed information systems. The audit and evaluation processes are carried out in accordance with the international standards developed for information system security assurance.security, vulnerability, web application, audit