Runtime Vulnerability Detection with Remote Debugging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Security personnel often detect vulnerabilities in applications, but developers disagree on their accessibility and exploitability, making it difficult to debug and fix issues, especially due to lack of context during runtime.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a mechanism that pauses application execution at the precise location of vulnerability, allowing developers to remotely debug and understand the context, using a runtime monitoring solution with breakpoint support and a vulnerability detection and resolving engine.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If security personnel conduct vulnerability detection on applications, then vulnerabilities can be detected, but developers may disagree on the reachability or exploitability of reported vulnerabilities making it difficult to fix
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an automated analysis system that acts as an intermediary between security personnel and developers. This system analyzes application code, identifies vulnerabilities, and provides detailed reports with code locations and exploitability assessments, serving as a neutral mediator that both parties can trust and understand.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual, subjective assessment process with an automated computational system. Instead of relying on human experts to manually analyze and agree on vulnerability characteristics, the system uses algorithms to automatically detect, analyze, and report vulnerabilities with objective metrics about reachability and exploitability.
2Loss of time
If vulnerability detection is performed without runtime context, then detection can occur, but it is difficult to determine where malicious data comes from, how the program reached the vulnerability point, and why security controls failed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary static analysis of the application code before runtime to identify potential vulnerability locations and security control configurations. This preliminary action prepares the system to quickly capture and analyze runtime context when vulnerabilities are actually exploited, combining the speed of static analysis with the information richness of runtime data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements nested analysis layers where static code analysis is embedded within runtime monitoring, and runtime context capture is nested within the vulnerability exploitation detection. This multi-layered approach allows the system to operate at different levels of abstraction simultaneously, maintaining both speed and information quality.
3Ease of repair
If developers are provided with detailed context about vulnerability exploitation, then debugging and fixing becomes easier, but the complexity of the monitoring and debugging system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the monitoring system into distinct functional modules: code instrumentation components, runtime event capture modules, analysis engines, and reporting generators. Each module handles a specific aspect of vulnerability detection and context collection, making the overall complex system manageable through clear separation of concerns and specialized functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
In some examples, a method may include detecting a vulnerability in an application during execution on a first computing device. The method may include triggering a breakpoint based on the detecting, thereby pausing the execution of the application before execution of a portion of code that exploits the vulnerability. The method may include communicating a message indicating occurrence of the breakpoint. The method may include receiving a connection request from a second computing device in response to the message. The method may include resuming execution of the application from the breakpoint subject to a signal from the second computing device.