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diff --git a/docs/unicorn_mode.txt b/docs/unicorn_mode.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b691fff8..00000000 --- a/docs/unicorn_mode.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,109 +0,0 @@ -========================================================= -Unicorn-based binary-only instrumentation for afl-fuzz -========================================================= - -1) Introduction ---------------- - -The code in ./unicorn_mode allows you to build a standalone feature that -leverages the Unicorn Engine and allows callers to obtain instrumentation -output for black-box, closed-source binary code snippets. This mechanism -can be then used by afl-fuzz to stress-test targets that couldn't be built -with afl-gcc or used in QEMU mode, or with other extensions such as -TriforceAFL. - -There is a significant performance penalty compared to native AFL, -but at least we're able to use AFL on these binaries, right? - -The idea and much of the implementation comes from Nathan Voss <njvoss299@gmail.com>. - -2) How to use -------------- - -Requirements: you need an installed python2 environment. - -*** Building AFL's Unicorn Mode *** - -First, make afl as usual. -Once that completes successfully you need to build and add in the Unicorn Mode -features: - - $ cd unicorn_mode - $ ./build_unicorn_support.sh - -NOTE: This script downloads a recent Unicorn Engine commit that has been tested -and is stable-ish from the Unicorn github page. If you are offline, you'll need -to hack up this script a little bit and supply your own copy of Unicorn's latest -stable release. It's not very hard, just check out the beginning of the -build_unicorn_support.sh script and adjust as necessary. - -Building Unicorn will take a little bit (~5-10 minutes). Once it completes -it automatically compiles a sample application and verify that it works. - -*** Fuzzing with Unicorn Mode *** - -To really use unicorn-mode effectively you need to prepare the following: - - * Relevant binary code to be fuzzed - * Knowledge of the memory map and good starting state - * Folder containing sample inputs to start fuzzing with - - Same ideas as any other AFL inputs - - Quality/speed of results will depend greatly on quality of starting - samples - - See AFL's guidance on how to create a sample corpus - * Unicorn-based test harness which: - - Adds memory map regions - - Loads binary code into memory - - Emulates at least one instruction* - - Yeah, this is lame. See 'Gotchas' section below for more info - - Loads and verifies data to fuzz from a command-line specified file - - AFL will provide mutated inputs by changing the file passed to - the test harness - - Presumably the data to be fuzzed is at a fixed buffer address - - If input constraints (size, invalid bytes, etc.) are known they - should be checked after the file is loaded. If a constraint - fails, just exit the test harness. AFL will treat the input as - 'uninteresting' and move on. - - Sets up registers and memory state for beginning of test - - Emulates the interested code from beginning to end - - If a crash is detected, the test harness must 'crash' by - throwing a signal (SIGSEGV, SIGKILL, SIGABORT, etc.) - -Once you have all those things ready to go you just need to run afl-fuzz in -'unicorn-mode' by passing in the '-U' flag: - - $ afl-fuzz -U -m none -i /path/to/inputs -o /path/to/results -- ./test_harness @@ - -The normal afl-fuzz command line format applies to everything here. Refer to -AFL's main documentation for more info about how to use afl-fuzz effectively. - -For a much clearer vision of what all of this looks like, please refer to the -sample provided in the 'unicorn_mode/samples' directory. There is also a blog -post that goes over the basics at: - -https://medium.com/@njvoss299/afl-unicorn-fuzzing-arbitrary-binary-code-563ca28936bf - -The 'helper_scripts' directory also contains several helper scripts that allow you -to dump context from a running process, load it, and hook heap allocations. For details -on how to use this check out the follow-up blog post to the one linked above. - -A example use of AFL-Unicorn mode is discussed in the Paper Unicorefuzz: -https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot19/presentation/maier - -3) Gotchas, feedback, bugs --------------------------- - -To make sure that AFL's fork server starts up correctly the Unicorn test -harness script must emulate at least one instruction before loading the -data that will be fuzzed from the input file. It doesn't matter what the -instruction is, nor if it is valid. This is an artifact of how the fork-server -is started and could likely be fixed with some clever re-arranging of the -patches applied to Unicorn. - -Running the build script builds Unicorn and its python bindings and installs -them on your system. This installation will supersede any existing Unicorn -installation with the patched afl-unicorn version. - -Refer to the unicorn_mode/samples/arm_example/arm_tester.c for an example -of how to do this properly! If you don't get this right, AFL will not -load any mutated inputs and your fuzzing will be useless! |