Description
Solving optimization problems can be done in various ways. For
instance, evolutionary optimization algorithms such as fuzzing can be
used to solve such problems. Gradient based optimization is another
approach that is considered to be faster than evolutionary methods.
However, the gradient-based approaches require gradients to be
efficiently calculated or approximated, which requires the problem to be
differentiable. We propose to create a neural network model to predict
the effects of a given arbitrary instruction sequence on the registers,
given the initial state of the registers prior to executing the
instruction sequence. Having such a model allows us to consider
arbitrary instruction sequences as differentiable sequences, enabling us
to calculate their gradient. This property allows gradient-based
optimization techniques to be used on various problems related to
instruction sequences, such as bug or vulnerability detection. In this
thesis, we develop such a model using TREX as an embedding model for
instruction sequences. We also present the performance of our developed
model alongside our methodology and discuss some limitations to our
approach.
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Thesis topic in co-operation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, Garching