LeMix: Rehosting Embedded Systems as Linux Application for Effective Vulnerability Detection​
Primary Investigator:
Aravind Machiry
Sai Ritvik Tanksalkar, Jayashree Srinivasan, Srihari Danduri, Paschal C. Amusuo, James C. Davis, Aravind Machiry​
Abstract
Dynamic analysis stands out as a crucial capability for security assessment in embedded systems software. Most dynamic analysis techniques focus on emulation. However, this approach encounters scalability challenges due to the diversity of embedded hardware and software platforms.
We introduce Lemix, a framework to separate an embedded application from its hardware dependencies, allowing it to operate on a standard Linux platform. Lemix makes it easier to find and fix security issues in the application using traditional security analysis techniques. Our key insight is that targeted modifications to an application's source code, aimed at eliminating architecture-dependent dependencies, generally do not significantly impact the application's functionality or the underlying layers of the operating system it relies on. Our results further validate that maintaining high application fidelity is not necessarily a prerequisite for effective security analysis.