A Survey of Protocol Fuzzing

TL;DR

This study conducted a comprehensive investigation of related works from both academia and industry and provides a systematic categorization and overview of existing research efforts in protocol fuzzing.

Abstract

Communication protocols form the bedrock of our interconnected world, yet vulnerabilities within their implementations pose significant security threats. Recent developments have seen a surge in fuzzing-based research dedicated to uncovering these vulnerabilities within protocol implementations. However, there still lacks a systematic overview of protocol fuzzing for answering the essential questions such as what the unique challenges are, how existing works solve them, etc. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of related works from both academia and industry. Our study includes a detailed summary of the specific challenges in protocol fuzzing, and provides a systematic categorization and overview of existing research efforts. Furthermore, we explore and discuss potential future research directions in protocol fuzzing. This survey serves as a foundational guideline for researchers and practitioners in the field.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Search criteria.
• Figure 2: Distribution of papers along publication years.
• Figure 3: Types of protocols.
• Figure 4: Summarized Workflow of Existing Protocol Fuzzers.
• Figure 5: Taxonomy of communication model construction techniques.