AUTOMATED SECURITY TOOLS

Korey Breshears

Overview

What are automated security tools? Why do we need them? What types of tools are there? What problems do these tools have?

What is it?

Automated security tools are tools designed to enhance the security of a program automatically

Why do we need these tools? Information is increasing at an

unprecedented pace It is time consuming to debug subtle

bugs Easier to maintain Quicker code development Reliability

Types of tools

Compiler/Translator Toolkits/Frameworks Stand alone programs

Compiler/Translator

Provide type safety for non type safe languages

Provide security for parallel programs Ccured SAFECode Project Gcc known problem

CCured

CCured is a source-to-source translator for C

The translator itself is written in Ocaml (a dialect of ML)

Provides type safety for C program

SAFECode Project

Array bounds checking Loads and stores only access valid

memory objects Type safety for a subset of memory

objects proven to be type-safe Sound operational semantics in the face

of dangling pointer errors Optional dangling pointer detection

Toolkits/Frameworks

Securibot framework Provide built in functions for security Access control policy generator

Stand alone program

Monitor stack and heap Provide real time security

Issues with automation

Only known types of problems can be caught

The security program could miss a bug The security program is only as strong

as its algorithm

Conclusion

What automated security tools are and benefits to using them

Types of toolsCompilers/TranslatorsToolkits/FrameworksStand alone Programs

Problems with automated tools

Questions?