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In general, a security scanner has three main functions. Let's take a look at them together:
-Discovering a network or a host on the Internet.
-Once a host is discovered, identifying the types of services running on it.-By testing these services, identifying any known vulnerabilities and providing patching recommendations.
Source Code Scanning:
Source code scanning primarily focuses on open-source programs. It involves examining the program for file structures, naming conventions, functions, stack pointers, and other elements that do not adhere to security rules. This helps uncover potential security flaws in the program. This vulnerability analysis technique requires proficiency in programming languages and the definition of inspection rules for insecure code. The source code is examined using expression matching to check for security issues.
Due to the dynamic nature of program execution, static code scanning is incomplete. Environment error injection is a mature software testing method that has been widely applied in protocol security testing and other fields.
A system typically consists of "applications" and "runtime environments." For various reasons, programmers always assume that their programs will run correctly in a normal environment. When these assumptions hold true, their programs naturally function correctly. However, due to the environment being a shared resource, it is often influenced by other entities, especially malicious users. As a result, the assumptions made by programmers may be incorrect. The ability of a program to tolerate errors in the environment is a key issue affecting its robustness.
Error injection, which involves intentionally injecting artificial errors into the software's runtime environment and verifying the reactions, is an effective method for assessing the fault tolerance and reliability of computer and software systems. During the testing process, errors are injected into the environment, causing interference. In other words, the software's running environment is disturbed during the testing process, and observations are made on how the program responds under such disturbances and whether it leads to security incidents. If no incidents occur, the system can be considered secure. In summary, the error injection method aims to trigger security vulnerabilities present in the program by selecting an appropriate error model.
In real-world situations, it is challenging to trigger abnormal environments, as it depends on the tester's knowledge of the "environment" and how to trigger it. Therefore, testing software security in exceptional environments becomes difficult. Error injection techniques provide a way to simulate abnormal environments without concerning themselves with how these errors occur in reality.
The analysis of software environment error injection also relies on known security vulnerabilities in the operating system. In other words, when performing error injection analysis on software, it is crucial to fully consider the security flaws present in the operating system, as these flaws can impact the software's security. Therefore, selecting an appropriate error model to trigger the hidden security vulnerabilities in the program is of utmost importance. It is necessary to choose an error model that can simulate real software systems at a high level, then analyze how attackers exploit vulnerabilities recorded in vulnerability databases and transform these exploits into environmental error injections. This helps narrow the gap between error injections during testing and actual occurrences of errors.
In conclusion, the methods for vulnerability detection discussed here include security scanning techniques primarily aimed at detecting known vulnerabilities, while the latter three methods primarily focus on detecting unknown vulnerabilities. For the detection of unknown vulnerabilities, source code scanning (including disassembly scanning) belongs to static detection techniques, while environment error injection falls under dynamic detection techniques.
Furthermore, looking at it from a different perspective, source code scanning (including disassembly scanning) is similar to white-box testing as it detects potential issues in the software system's source code. On the other hand, environment error injection methods are similar to black-box testing. They do not focus on code-related issues but instead interfere with the program's runtime environment and observe how the program responds to injected errors, aiming to identify issues from the program's periphery.
The purpose of vulnerability detection is to discover and patch vulnerabilities, ultimately enhancing the security of information systems and fundamentally reducing the occurrence of security incidents.
The above is the content shared by InsightSec, hoping to be helpful. Stay tuned for more updates!
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