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+#Fuzzing binary-only programs with afl++
+
+afl++, libfuzzer and others are great if you have the source code, and
+it allows for very fast and coverage guided fuzzing.
+
+However, if there is only the binary program and no source code available,
+then standard `afl-fuzz -n` (dumb mode) is not effective.
+
+The following is a description of how these binaries can be fuzzed with afl++
+
+!!!!!
+TL;DR: try DYNINST with afl-dyninst. If it produces too many crashes then
+      use afl -Q qemu_mode, or better: use both in parallel.
+!!!!!
+
+
+##QEMU
+Qemu is the "native" solution to the program.
+It is available in the ./qemu_mode/ directory and once compiled it can
+be accessed by the afl-fuzz -Q command line option.
+The speed decrease is at about 50%
+It is the easiest to use alternative and even works for cross-platform binaries.
+
+Note that there is also honggfuzz: [https://github.com/google/honggfuzz](https://github.com/google/honggfuzz)
+which now has a qemu_mode, but its performance is just 1.5%!
+
+As it is included in afl++ this needs no URL.
+
+
+##WINE+QEMU
+Wine mode can run Win32 PE binaries with the QEMU instrumentation.
+It needs Wine, python3 and the pefile python package installed.
+
+As it is included in afl++ this needs no URL.
+
+
+##UNICORN
+Unicorn is a fork of QEMU. The instrumentation is, therefore, very similar.
+In contrast to QEMU, Unicorn does not offer a full system or even userland
+emulation. Runtime environment and/or loaders have to be written from scratch,
+if needed. On top, block chaining has been removed. This means the speed boost
+introduced in  the patched QEMU Mode of afl++ cannot simply be ported over to
+Unicorn. For further information, check out ./unicorn_mode.txt.
+
+As it is included in afl++ this needs no URL.
+
+
+##DYNINST
+Dyninst is a binary instrumentation framework similar to Pintool and Dynamorio
+(see far below). However whereas Pintool and Dynamorio work at runtime, dyninst
+instruments the target at load time, and then let it run - or save the
+binary with the changes.
+This is great for some things, e.g. fuzzing, and not so effective for others,
+e.g. malware analysis.
+
+So what we can do with dyninst is taking every basic block, and put afl's
+instrumention code in there - and then save the binary.
+Afterwards we can just fuzz the newly saved target binary with afl-fuzz.
+Sounds great? It is. The issue though - it is a non-trivial problem to
+insert instructions, which change addresses in the process space, so that
+everything is still working afterwards. Hence more often than not binaries
+crash when they are run.
+
+The speed decrease is about 15-35%, depending on the optimization options
+used with afl-dyninst.
+
+So if dyninst works, it is the best option available. Otherwise it just doesn't
+work well.
+
+[https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-dyninst](https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-dyninst)
+
+
+##INTEL-PT
+If you have a newer Intel CPU, you can make use of Intels processor trace.
+The big issue with Intel's PT is the small buffer size and the complex
+encoding of the debug information collected through PT.
+This makes the decoding very CPU intensive and hence slow.
+As a result, the overall speed decrease is about 70-90% (depending on
+the implementation and other factors).
+
+There are two afl intel-pt implementations:
+
+1. [https://github.com/junxzm1990/afl-pt](https://github.com/junxzm1990/afl-pt)
+ => this needs Ubuntu 14.04.05 without any updates and the 4.4 kernel.
+
+2. [https://github.com/hunter-ht-2018/ptfuzzer](https://github.com/hunter-ht-2018/ptfuzzer)
+ => this needs a 4.14 or 4.15 kernel. the "nopti" kernel boot option must
+    be used. This one is faster than the other.
+
+Note that there is also honggfuzz: https://github.com/google/honggfuzz
+But its IPT performance is just 6%!
+
+
+##CORESIGHT
+Coresight is ARM's answer to Intel's PT.
+There is no implementation so far which handle coresight and getting
+it working on an ARM Linux is very difficult due to custom kernel building
+on embedded systems is difficult. And finding one that has coresight in
+the ARM chip is difficult too.
+My guess is that it is slower than Qemu, but faster than Intel PT.
+
+If anyone finds any coresight implementation for afl please ping me:
+vh@thc.org
+
+
+##FRIDA
+Frida is a dynamic instrumentation engine like Pintool, Dyninst and Dynamorio.
+What is special is that it is written Python, and scripted with Javascript.
+It is mostly used to reverse binaries on mobile phones however can be used
+everywhere.
+
+There is a WIP fuzzer available at [https://github.com/andreafioraldi/frida-fuzzer](https://github.com/andreafioraldi/frida-fuzzer)
+
+
+##PIN & DYNAMORIO
+Pintool and Dynamorio are dynamic instrumentation engines, and they can be
+used for getting basic block information at runtime.
+Pintool is only available for Intel x32/x64 on Linux, Mac OS and Windows
+whereas Dynamorio is additionally available for ARM and AARCH64.
+Dynamorio is also 10x faster than Pintool.
+
+The big issue with Dynamorio (and therefore Pintool too) is speed.
+Dynamorio has a speed decrease of 98-99%
+Pintool has a speed decrease of 99.5%
+
+Hence Dynamorio is the option to go for if everything fails, and Pintool
+only if Dynamorio fails too.
+
+Dynamorio solutions:
+  * [https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-dynamorio](https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-dynamorio)
+  * [https://github.com/mxmssh/drAFL](https://github.com/mxmssh/drAFL)
+  * [https://github.com/googleprojectzero/winafl/](https://github.com/googleprojectzero/winafl/) <= very good but windows only
+
+Pintool solutions:
+  * [https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-pin](https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/afl-pin)
+  * [https://github.com/mothran/aflpin](https://github.com/mothran/aflpin)
+  * [https://github.com/spinpx/afl_pin_mode](https://github.com/spinpx/afl_pin_mode) <= only old Pintool version supported
+
+
+##Non-AFL solutions
+There are many binary-only fuzzing frameworks.
+Some are great for CTFs but don't work with large binaries, others are very
+slow but have good path discovery, some are very hard to set-up ...
+
+* QSYM: [https://github.com/sslab-gatech/qsym](https://github.com/sslab-gatech/qsym)
+* Manticore: [https://github.com/trailofbits/manticore](https://github.com/trailofbits/manticore)
+* S2E: [https://github.com/S2E](https://github.com/S2E)
+* <please send me any missing that are good>
+
+
+## Closing words
+
+That's it! News, corrections, updates? Send an email to vh@thc.org