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1=======================================================
2libFuzzer – a library for coverage-guided fuzz testing.
3=======================================================
4.. contents::
5   :local:
6   :depth: 1
7
8Introduction
9============
10
11LibFuzzer is in-process, coverage-guided, evolutionary fuzzing engine.
12
13LibFuzzer is linked with the library under test, and feeds fuzzed inputs to the
14library via a specific fuzzing entrypoint (aka "target function"); the fuzzer
15then tracks which areas of the code are reached, and generates mutations on the
16corpus of input data in order to maximize the code coverage.
17The code coverage
18information for libFuzzer is provided by LLVM's SanitizerCoverage_
19instrumentation.
20
21Contact: libfuzzer(#)googlegroups.com
22
23Versions
24========
25
26LibFuzzer is under active development so you will need the current
27(or at least a very recent) version of the Clang compiler (see `building Clang from trunk`_)
28
29Refer to https://releases.llvm.org/5.0.0/docs/LibFuzzer.html for documentation on the older version.
30
31
32Getting Started
33===============
34
35.. contents::
36   :local:
37   :depth: 1
38
39Fuzz Target
40-----------
41
42The first step in using libFuzzer on a library is to implement a
43*fuzz target* -- a function that accepts an array of bytes and
44does something interesting with these bytes using the API under test.
45Like this:
46
47.. code-block:: c++
48
49  // fuzz_target.cc
50  extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *Data, size_t Size) {
51    DoSomethingInterestingWithMyAPI(Data, Size);
52    return 0;  // Non-zero return values are reserved for future use.
53  }
54
55Note that this fuzz target does not depend on libFuzzer in any way
56and so it is possible and even desirable to use it with other fuzzing engines
57e.g. AFL_ and/or Radamsa_.
58
59Some important things to remember about fuzz targets:
60
61* The fuzzing engine will execute the fuzz target many times with different inputs in the same process.
62* It must tolerate any kind of input (empty, huge, malformed, etc).
63* It must not `exit()` on any input.
64* It may use threads but ideally all threads should be joined at the end of the function.
65* It must be as deterministic as possible. Non-determinism (e.g. random decisions not based on the input bytes) will make fuzzing inefficient.
66* It must be fast. Try avoiding cubic or greater complexity, logging, or excessive memory consumption.
67* Ideally, it should not modify any global state (although that's not strict).
68* Usually, the narrower the target the better. E.g. if your target can parse several data formats, split it into several targets, one per format.
69
70
71Fuzzer Usage
72------------
73
74Recent versions of Clang (starting from 6.0) include libFuzzer, and no extra installation is necessary.
75
76In order to build your fuzzer binary, use the `-fsanitize=fuzzer` flag during the
77compilation and linking. In most cases you may want to combine libFuzzer with
78AddressSanitizer_ (ASAN), UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer_ (UBSAN), or both.  You can
79also build with MemorySanitizer_ (MSAN), but support is experimental::
80
81   clang -g -O1 -fsanitize=fuzzer                         mytarget.c # Builds the fuzz target w/o sanitizers
82   clang -g -O1 -fsanitize=fuzzer,address                 mytarget.c # Builds the fuzz target with ASAN
83   clang -g -O1 -fsanitize=fuzzer,signed-integer-overflow mytarget.c # Builds the fuzz target with a part of UBSAN
84   clang -g -O1 -fsanitize=fuzzer,memory                  mytarget.c # Builds the fuzz target with MSAN
85
86This will perform the necessary instrumentation, as well as linking with the libFuzzer library.
87Note that ``-fsanitize=fuzzer`` links in the libFuzzer's ``main()`` symbol.
88
89If modifying ``CFLAGS`` of a large project, which also compiles executables
90requiring their own ``main`` symbol, it may be desirable to request just the
91instrumentation without linking::
92
93   clang -fsanitize=fuzzer-no-link mytarget.c
94
95Then libFuzzer can be linked to the desired driver by passing in
96``-fsanitize=fuzzer`` during the linking stage.
97
98.. _libfuzzer-corpus:
99
100Corpus
101------
102
103Coverage-guided fuzzers like libFuzzer rely on a corpus of sample inputs for the
104code under test.  This corpus should ideally be seeded with a varied collection
105of valid and invalid inputs for the code under test; for example, for a graphics
106library the initial corpus might hold a variety of different small PNG/JPG/GIF
107files.  The fuzzer generates random mutations based around the sample inputs in
108the current corpus.  If a mutation triggers execution of a previously-uncovered
109path in the code under test, then that mutation is saved to the corpus for
110future variations.
111
112LibFuzzer will work without any initial seeds, but will be less
113efficient if the library under test accepts complex,
114structured inputs.
115
116The corpus can also act as a sanity/regression check, to confirm that the
117fuzzing entrypoint still works and that all of the sample inputs run through
118the code under test without problems.
119
120If you have a large corpus (either generated by fuzzing or acquired by other means)
121you may want to minimize it while still preserving the full coverage. One way to do that
122is to use the `-merge=1` flag:
123
124.. code-block:: console
125
126  mkdir NEW_CORPUS_DIR  # Store minimized corpus here.
127  ./my_fuzzer -merge=1 NEW_CORPUS_DIR FULL_CORPUS_DIR
128
129You may use the same flag to add more interesting items to an existing corpus.
130Only the inputs that trigger new coverage will be added to the first corpus.
131
132.. code-block:: console
133
134  ./my_fuzzer -merge=1 CURRENT_CORPUS_DIR NEW_POTENTIALLY_INTERESTING_INPUTS_DIR
135
136Running
137-------
138
139To run the fuzzer, first create a Corpus_ directory that holds the
140initial "seed" sample inputs:
141
142.. code-block:: console
143
144  mkdir CORPUS_DIR
145  cp /some/input/samples/* CORPUS_DIR
146
147Then run the fuzzer on the corpus directory:
148
149.. code-block:: console
150
151  ./my_fuzzer CORPUS_DIR  # -max_len=1000 -jobs=20 ...
152
153As the fuzzer discovers new interesting test cases (i.e. test cases that
154trigger coverage of new paths through the code under test), those test cases
155will be added to the corpus directory.
156
157By default, the fuzzing process will continue indefinitely – at least until
158a bug is found.  Any crashes or sanitizer failures will be reported as usual,
159stopping the fuzzing process, and the particular input that triggered the bug
160will be written to disk (typically as ``crash-<sha1>``, ``leak-<sha1>``,
161or ``timeout-<sha1>``).
162
163
164Parallel Fuzzing
165----------------
166
167Each libFuzzer process is single-threaded, unless the library under test starts
168its own threads.  However, it is possible to run multiple libFuzzer processes in
169parallel with a shared corpus directory; this has the advantage that any new
170inputs found by one fuzzer process will be available to the other fuzzer
171processes (unless you disable this with the ``-reload=0`` option).
172
173This is primarily controlled by the ``-jobs=N`` option, which indicates that
174that `N` fuzzing jobs should be run to completion (i.e. until a bug is found or
175time/iteration limits are reached).  These jobs will be run across a set of
176worker processes, by default using half of the available CPU cores; the count of
177worker processes can be overridden by the ``-workers=N`` option.  For example,
178running with ``-jobs=30`` on a 12-core machine would run 6 workers by default,
179with each worker averaging 5 bugs by completion of the entire process.
180
181
182Resuming merge
183--------------
184
185Merging large corpora may be time consuming, and it is often desirable to do it
186on preemptable VMs, where the process may be killed at any time.
187In order to seamlessly resume the merge, use the ``-merge_control_file`` flag
188and use ``killall -SIGUSR1 /path/to/fuzzer/binary`` to stop the merge gracefully. Example:
189
190.. code-block:: console
191
192  % rm -f SomeLocalPath
193  % ./my_fuzzer CORPUS1 CORPUS2 -merge=1 -merge_control_file=SomeLocalPath
194  ...
195  MERGE-INNER: using the control file 'SomeLocalPath'
196  ...
197  # While this is running, do `killall -SIGUSR1 my_fuzzer` in another console
198  ==9015== INFO: libFuzzer: exiting as requested
199
200  # This will leave the file SomeLocalPath with the partial state of the merge.
201  # Now, you can continue the merge by executing the same command. The merge
202  # will continue from where it has been interrupted.
203  % ./my_fuzzer CORPUS1 CORPUS2 -merge=1 -merge_control_file=SomeLocalPath
204  ...
205  MERGE-OUTER: non-empty control file provided: 'SomeLocalPath'
206  MERGE-OUTER: control file ok, 32 files total, first not processed file 20
207  ...
208
209Options
210=======
211
212To run the fuzzer, pass zero or more corpus directories as command line
213arguments.  The fuzzer will read test inputs from each of these corpus
214directories, and any new test inputs that are generated will be written
215back to the first corpus directory:
216
217.. code-block:: console
218
219  ./fuzzer [-flag1=val1 [-flag2=val2 ...] ] [dir1 [dir2 ...] ]
220
221If a list of files (rather than directories) are passed to the fuzzer program,
222then it will re-run those files as test inputs but will not perform any fuzzing.
223In this mode the fuzzer binary can be used as a regression test (e.g. on a
224continuous integration system) to check the target function and saved inputs
225still work.
226
227The most important command line options are:
228
229``-help``
230  Print help message.
231``-seed``
232  Random seed. If 0 (the default), the seed is generated.
233``-runs``
234  Number of individual test runs, -1 (the default) to run indefinitely.
235``-max_len``
236  Maximum length of a test input. If 0 (the default), libFuzzer tries to guess
237  a good value based on the corpus (and reports it).
238``-timeout``
239  Timeout in seconds, default 1200. If an input takes longer than this timeout,
240  the process is treated as a failure case.
241``-rss_limit_mb``
242  Memory usage limit in Mb, default 2048. Use 0 to disable the limit.
243  If an input requires more than this amount of RSS memory to execute,
244  the process is treated as a failure case.
245  The limit is checked in a separate thread every second.
246  If running w/o ASAN/MSAN, you may use 'ulimit -v' instead.
247``-malloc_limit_mb``
248  If non-zero, the fuzzer will exit if the target tries to allocate this
249  number of Mb with one malloc call.
250  If zero (default) same limit as rss_limit_mb is applied.
251``-timeout_exitcode``
252  Exit code (default 77) used if libFuzzer reports a timeout.
253``-error_exitcode``
254  Exit code (default 77) used if libFuzzer itself (not a sanitizer) reports a bug (leak, OOM, etc).
255``-max_total_time``
256  If positive, indicates the maximum total time in seconds to run the fuzzer.
257  If 0 (the default), run indefinitely.
258``-merge``
259  If set to 1, any corpus inputs from the 2nd, 3rd etc. corpus directories
260  that trigger new code coverage will be merged into the first corpus
261  directory.  Defaults to 0. This flag can be used to minimize a corpus.
262``-merge_control_file``
263  Specify a control file used for the merge proccess.
264  If a merge process gets killed it tries to leave this file in a state
265  suitable for resuming the merge. By default a temporary file will be used.
266``-minimize_crash``
267  If 1, minimizes the provided crash input.
268  Use with -runs=N or -max_total_time=N to limit the number of attempts.
269``-reload``
270  If set to 1 (the default), the corpus directory is re-read periodically to
271  check for new inputs; this allows detection of new inputs that were discovered
272  by other fuzzing processes.
273``-jobs``
274  Number of fuzzing jobs to run to completion. Default value is 0, which runs a
275  single fuzzing process until completion.  If the value is >= 1, then this
276  number of jobs performing fuzzing are run, in a collection of parallel
277  separate worker processes; each such worker process has its
278  ``stdout``/``stderr`` redirected to ``fuzz-<JOB>.log``.
279``-workers``
280  Number of simultaneous worker processes to run the fuzzing jobs to completion
281  in. If 0 (the default), ``min(jobs, NumberOfCpuCores()/2)`` is used.
282``-dict``
283  Provide a dictionary of input keywords; see Dictionaries_.
284``-use_counters``
285  Use `coverage counters`_ to generate approximate counts of how often code
286  blocks are hit; defaults to 1.
287``-reduce_inputs``
288  Try to reduce the size of inputs while preserving their full feature sets;
289  defaults to 1.
290``-use_value_profile``
291  Use `value profile`_ to guide corpus expansion; defaults to 0.
292``-only_ascii``
293  If 1, generate only ASCII (``isprint``+``isspace``) inputs. Defaults to 0.
294``-artifact_prefix``
295  Provide a prefix to use when saving fuzzing artifacts (crash, timeout, or
296  slow inputs) as ``$(artifact_prefix)file``.  Defaults to empty.
297``-exact_artifact_path``
298  Ignored if empty (the default).  If non-empty, write the single artifact on
299  failure (crash, timeout) as ``$(exact_artifact_path)``. This overrides
300  ``-artifact_prefix`` and will not use checksum in the file name. Do not use
301  the same path for several parallel processes.
302``-print_pcs``
303  If 1, print out newly covered PCs. Defaults to 0.
304``-print_final_stats``
305  If 1, print statistics at exit.  Defaults to 0.
306``-detect_leaks``
307  If 1 (default) and if LeakSanitizer is enabled
308  try to detect memory leaks during fuzzing (i.e. not only at shut down).
309``-close_fd_mask``
310  Indicate output streams to close at startup. Be careful, this will
311  remove diagnostic output from target code (e.g. messages on assert failure).
312
313   - 0 (default): close neither ``stdout`` nor ``stderr``
314   - 1 : close ``stdout``
315   - 2 : close ``stderr``
316   - 3 : close both ``stdout`` and ``stderr``.
317
318For the full list of flags run the fuzzer binary with ``-help=1``.
319
320Output
321======
322
323During operation the fuzzer prints information to ``stderr``, for example::
324
325  INFO: Seed: 1523017872
326  INFO: Loaded 1 modules (16 guards): [0x744e60, 0x744ea0),
327  INFO: -max_len is not provided, using 64
328  INFO: A corpus is not provided, starting from an empty corpus
329  #0	READ units: 1
330  #1	INITED cov: 3 ft: 2 corp: 1/1b exec/s: 0 rss: 24Mb
331  #3811	NEW    cov: 4 ft: 3 corp: 2/2b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 1 MS: 5 ChangeBit-ChangeByte-ChangeBit-ShuffleBytes-ChangeByte-
332  #3827	NEW    cov: 5 ft: 4 corp: 3/4b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 2 MS: 1 CopyPart-
333  #3963	NEW    cov: 6 ft: 5 corp: 4/6b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 2 MS: 2 ShuffleBytes-ChangeBit-
334  #4167	NEW    cov: 7 ft: 6 corp: 5/9b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 3 MS: 1 InsertByte-
335  ...
336
337The early parts of the output include information about the fuzzer options and
338configuration, including the current random seed (in the ``Seed:`` line; this
339can be overridden with the ``-seed=N`` flag).
340
341Further output lines have the form of an event code and statistics.  The
342possible event codes are:
343
344``READ``
345  The fuzzer has read in all of the provided input samples from the corpus
346  directories.
347``INITED``
348  The fuzzer has completed initialization, which includes running each of
349  the initial input samples through the code under test.
350``NEW``
351  The fuzzer has created a test input that covers new areas of the code
352  under test.  This input will be saved to the primary corpus directory.
353``REDUCE``
354  The fuzzer has found a better (smaller) input that triggers previously
355  discovered features (set ``-reduce_inputs=0`` to disable).
356``pulse``
357  The fuzzer has generated 2\ :sup:`n` inputs (generated periodically to reassure
358  the user that the fuzzer is still working).
359``DONE``
360  The fuzzer has completed operation because it has reached the specified
361  iteration limit (``-runs``) or time limit (``-max_total_time``).
362``RELOAD``
363  The fuzzer is performing a periodic reload of inputs from the corpus
364  directory; this allows it to discover any inputs discovered by other
365  fuzzer processes (see `Parallel Fuzzing`_).
366
367Each output line also reports the following statistics (when non-zero):
368
369``cov:``
370  Total number of code blocks or edges covered by executing the current corpus.
371``ft:``
372  libFuzzer uses different signals to evaluate the code coverage:
373  edge coverage, edge counters, value profiles, indirect caller/callee pairs, etc.
374  These signals combined are called *features* (`ft:`).
375``corp:``
376  Number of entries in the current in-memory test corpus and its size in bytes.
377``lim:``
378  Current limit on the length of new entries in the corpus.  Increases over time
379  until the max length (``-max_len``) is reached.
380``exec/s:``
381  Number of fuzzer iterations per second.
382``rss:``
383  Current memory consumption.
384
385For ``NEW`` events, the output line also includes information about the mutation
386operation that produced the new input:
387
388``L:``
389  Size of the new input in bytes.
390``MS: <n> <operations>``
391  Count and list of the mutation operations used to generate the input.
392
393
394Examples
395========
396.. contents::
397   :local:
398   :depth: 1
399
400Toy example
401-----------
402
403A simple function that does something interesting if it receives the input
404"HI!"::
405
406  cat << EOF > test_fuzzer.cc
407  #include <stdint.h>
408  #include <stddef.h>
409  extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size) {
410    if (size > 0 && data[0] == 'H')
411      if (size > 1 && data[1] == 'I')
412         if (size > 2 && data[2] == '!')
413         __builtin_trap();
414    return 0;
415  }
416  EOF
417  # Build test_fuzzer.cc with asan and link against libFuzzer.a
418  clang++ -fsanitize=address -fsanitize-coverage=trace-pc-guard test_fuzzer.cc libFuzzer.a
419  # Run the fuzzer with no corpus.
420  ./a.out
421
422You should get an error pretty quickly::
423
424  INFO: Seed: 1523017872
425  INFO: Loaded 1 modules (16 guards): [0x744e60, 0x744ea0),
426  INFO: -max_len is not provided, using 64
427  INFO: A corpus is not provided, starting from an empty corpus
428  #0	READ units: 1
429  #1	INITED cov: 3 ft: 2 corp: 1/1b exec/s: 0 rss: 24Mb
430  #3811	NEW    cov: 4 ft: 3 corp: 2/2b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 1 MS: 5 ChangeBit-ChangeByte-ChangeBit-ShuffleBytes-ChangeByte-
431  #3827	NEW    cov: 5 ft: 4 corp: 3/4b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 2 MS: 1 CopyPart-
432  #3963	NEW    cov: 6 ft: 5 corp: 4/6b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 2 MS: 2 ShuffleBytes-ChangeBit-
433  #4167	NEW    cov: 7 ft: 6 corp: 5/9b exec/s: 0 rss: 25Mb L: 3 MS: 1 InsertByte-
434  ==31511== ERROR: libFuzzer: deadly signal
435  ...
436  artifact_prefix='./'; Test unit written to ./crash-b13e8756b13a00cf168300179061fb4b91fefbed
437
438
439More examples
440-------------
441
442Examples of real-life fuzz targets and the bugs they find can be found
443at http://tutorial.libfuzzer.info. Among other things you can learn how
444to detect Heartbleed_ in one second.
445
446
447Advanced features
448=================
449.. contents::
450   :local:
451   :depth: 1
452
453Dictionaries
454------------
455LibFuzzer supports user-supplied dictionaries with input language keywords
456or other interesting byte sequences (e.g. multi-byte magic values).
457Use ``-dict=DICTIONARY_FILE``. For some input languages using a dictionary
458may significantly improve the search speed.
459The dictionary syntax is similar to that used by AFL_ for its ``-x`` option::
460
461  # Lines starting with '#' and empty lines are ignored.
462
463  # Adds "blah" (w/o quotes) to the dictionary.
464  kw1="blah"
465  # Use \\ for backslash and \" for quotes.
466  kw2="\"ac\\dc\""
467  # Use \xAB for hex values
468  kw3="\xF7\xF8"
469  # the name of the keyword followed by '=' may be omitted:
470  "foo\x0Abar"
471
472
473
474Tracing CMP instructions
475------------------------
476
477With an additional compiler flag ``-fsanitize-coverage=trace-cmp``
478(on by default as part of ``-fsanitize=fuzzer``, see SanitizerCoverageTraceDataFlow_)
479libFuzzer will intercept CMP instructions and guide mutations based
480on the arguments of intercepted CMP instructions. This may slow down
481the fuzzing but is very likely to improve the results.
482
483Value Profile
484-------------
485
486With  ``-fsanitize-coverage=trace-cmp``
487and extra run-time flag ``-use_value_profile=1`` the fuzzer will
488collect value profiles for the parameters of compare instructions
489and treat some new values as new coverage.
490
491The current imlpementation does roughly the following:
492
493* The compiler instruments all CMP instructions with a callback that receives both CMP arguments.
494* The callback computes `(caller_pc&4095) | (popcnt(Arg1 ^ Arg2) << 12)` and uses this value to set a bit in a bitset.
495* Every new observed bit in the bitset is treated as new coverage.
496
497
498This feature has a potential to discover many interesting inputs,
499but there are two downsides.
500First, the extra instrumentation may bring up to 2x additional slowdown.
501Second, the corpus may grow by several times.
502
503Fuzzer-friendly build mode
504---------------------------
505Sometimes the code under test is not fuzzing-friendly. Examples:
506
507  - The target code uses a PRNG seeded e.g. by system time and
508    thus two consequent invocations may potentially execute different code paths
509    even if the end result will be the same. This will cause a fuzzer to treat
510    two similar inputs as significantly different and it will blow up the test corpus.
511    E.g. libxml uses ``rand()`` inside its hash table.
512  - The target code uses checksums to protect from invalid inputs.
513    E.g. png checks CRC for every chunk.
514
515In many cases it makes sense to build a special fuzzing-friendly build
516with certain fuzzing-unfriendly features disabled. We propose to use a common build macro
517for all such cases for consistency: ``FUZZING_BUILD_MODE_UNSAFE_FOR_PRODUCTION``.
518
519.. code-block:: c++
520
521  void MyInitPRNG() {
522  #ifdef FUZZING_BUILD_MODE_UNSAFE_FOR_PRODUCTION
523    // In fuzzing mode the behavior of the code should be deterministic.
524    srand(0);
525  #else
526    srand(time(0));
527  #endif
528  }
529
530
531
532AFL compatibility
533-----------------
534LibFuzzer can be used together with AFL_ on the same test corpus.
535Both fuzzers expect the test corpus to reside in a directory, one file per input.
536You can run both fuzzers on the same corpus, one after another:
537
538.. code-block:: console
539
540  ./afl-fuzz -i testcase_dir -o findings_dir /path/to/program @@
541  ./llvm-fuzz testcase_dir findings_dir  # Will write new tests to testcase_dir
542
543Periodically restart both fuzzers so that they can use each other's findings.
544Currently, there is no simple way to run both fuzzing engines in parallel while sharing the same corpus dir.
545
546You may also use AFL on your target function ``LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput``:
547see an example `here <https://github.com/llvm-mirror/compiler-rt/tree/master/lib/fuzzer/afl>`__.
548
549How good is my fuzzer?
550----------------------
551
552Once you implement your target function ``LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput`` and fuzz it to death,
553you will want to know whether the function or the corpus can be improved further.
554One easy to use metric is, of course, code coverage.
555
556We recommend to use
557`Clang Coverage <http://clang.llvm.org/docs/SourceBasedCodeCoverage.html>`_,
558to visualize and study your code coverage
559(`example <https://github.com/google/fuzzer-test-suite/blob/master/tutorial/libFuzzerTutorial.md#visualizing-coverage>`_).
560
561
562User-supplied mutators
563----------------------
564
565LibFuzzer allows to use custom (user-supplied) mutators,
566see FuzzerInterface.h_
567
568Startup initialization
569----------------------
570If the library being tested needs to be initialized, there are several options.
571
572The simplest way is to have a statically initialized global object inside
573`LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput` (or in global scope if that works for you):
574
575.. code-block:: c++
576
577  extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *Data, size_t Size) {
578    static bool Initialized = DoInitialization();
579    ...
580
581Alternatively, you may define an optional init function and it will receive
582the program arguments that you can read and modify. Do this **only** if you
583really need to access ``argv``/``argc``.
584
585.. code-block:: c++
586
587   extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerInitialize(int *argc, char ***argv) {
588    ReadAndMaybeModify(argc, argv);
589    return 0;
590   }
591
592
593Leaks
594-----
595
596Binaries built with AddressSanitizer_ or LeakSanitizer_ will try to detect
597memory leaks at the process shutdown.
598For in-process fuzzing this is inconvenient
599since the fuzzer needs to report a leak with a reproducer as soon as the leaky
600mutation is found. However, running full leak detection after every mutation
601is expensive.
602
603By default (``-detect_leaks=1``) libFuzzer will count the number of
604``malloc`` and ``free`` calls when executing every mutation.
605If the numbers don't match (which by itself doesn't mean there is a leak)
606libFuzzer will invoke the more expensive LeakSanitizer_
607pass and if the actual leak is found, it will be reported with the reproducer
608and the process will exit.
609
610If your target has massive leaks and the leak detection is disabled
611you will eventually run out of RAM (see the ``-rss_limit_mb`` flag).
612
613
614Developing libFuzzer
615====================
616
617LibFuzzer is built as a part of LLVM project by default on macos and Linux.
618Users of other operating systems can explicitly request compilation using
619``-DLIBFUZZER_ENABLE=YES`` flag.
620Tests are run using ``check-fuzzer`` target from the build directory
621which was configured with ``-DLIBFUZZER_ENABLE_TESTS=ON`` flag.
622
623.. code-block:: console
624
625    ninja check-fuzzer
626
627
628FAQ
629=========================
630
631Q. Why doesn't libFuzzer use any of the LLVM support?
632-----------------------------------------------------
633
634There are two reasons.
635
636First, we want this library to be used outside of the LLVM without users having to
637build the rest of LLVM. This may sound unconvincing for many LLVM folks,
638but in practice the need for building the whole LLVM frightens many potential
639users -- and we want more users to use this code.
640
641Second, there is a subtle technical reason not to rely on the rest of LLVM, or
642any other large body of code (maybe not even STL). When coverage instrumentation
643is enabled, it will also instrument the LLVM support code which will blow up the
644coverage set of the process (since the fuzzer is in-process). In other words, by
645using more external dependencies we will slow down the fuzzer while the main
646reason for it to exist is extreme speed.
647
648Q. What about Windows then? The fuzzer contains code that does not build on Windows.
649------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
650
651Volunteers are welcome.
652
653Q. When libFuzzer is not a good solution for a problem?
654---------------------------------------------------------
655
656* If the test inputs are validated by the target library and the validator
657  asserts/crashes on invalid inputs, in-process fuzzing is not applicable.
658* Bugs in the target library may accumulate without being detected. E.g. a memory
659  corruption that goes undetected at first and then leads to a crash while
660  testing another input. This is why it is highly recommended to run this
661  in-process fuzzer with all sanitizers to detect most bugs on the spot.
662* It is harder to protect the in-process fuzzer from excessive memory
663  consumption and infinite loops in the target library (still possible).
664* The target library should not have significant global state that is not
665  reset between the runs.
666* Many interesting target libraries are not designed in a way that supports
667  the in-process fuzzer interface (e.g. require a file path instead of a
668  byte array).
669* If a single test run takes a considerable fraction of a second (or
670  more) the speed benefit from the in-process fuzzer is negligible.
671* If the target library runs persistent threads (that outlive
672  execution of one test) the fuzzing results will be unreliable.
673
674Q. So, what exactly this Fuzzer is good for?
675--------------------------------------------
676
677This Fuzzer might be a good choice for testing libraries that have relatively
678small inputs, each input takes < 10ms to run, and the library code is not expected
679to crash on invalid inputs.
680Examples: regular expression matchers, text or binary format parsers, compression,
681network, crypto.
682
683
684Trophies
685========
686* Thousands of bugs found on OSS-Fuzz:  https://opensource.googleblog.com/2017/05/oss-fuzz-five-months-later-and.html
687
688* GLIBC: https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/FuzzingLibc
689
690* MUSL LIBC: `[1] <http://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/commit/?id=39dfd58417ef642307d90306e1c7e50aaec5a35c>`__ `[2] <http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/03/30/3>`__
691
692* `pugixml <https://github.com/zeux/pugixml/issues/39>`_
693
694* PCRE: Search for "LLVM fuzzer" in http://vcs.pcre.org/pcre2/code/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup;
695  also in `bugzilla <https://bugs.exim.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__all__&content=libfuzzer&no_redirect=1&order=Importance&product=PCRE&query_format=specific>`_
696
697* `ICU <http://bugs.icu-project.org/trac/ticket/11838>`_
698
699* `Freetype <https://savannah.nongnu.org/search/?words=LibFuzzer&type_of_search=bugs&Search=Search&exact=1#options>`_
700
701* `Harfbuzz <https://github.com/behdad/harfbuzz/issues/139>`_
702
703* `SQLite <http://www3.sqlite.org/cgi/src/info/088009efdd56160b>`_
704
705* `Python <http://bugs.python.org/issue25388>`_
706
707* OpenSSL/BoringSSL: `[1] <https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/cb852981cd61733a7a1ae4fd8755b7ff950e857d>`_ `[2] <https://openssl.org/news/secadv/20160301.txt>`_ `[3] <https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/2b07fa4b22198ac02e0cee8f37f3337c3dba91bc>`_ `[4] <https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/6b6e0b20893e2be0e68af605a60ffa2cbb0ffa64>`_  `[5] <https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/931/commits/dd5ac557f052cc2b7f718ac44a8cb7ac6f77dca8>`_ `[6] <https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/931/commits/19b5b9194071d1d84e38ac9a952e715afbc85a81>`_
708
709* `Libxml2
710  <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__all__&content=libFuzzer&list_id=68957&order=Importance&product=libxml2&query_format=specific>`_ and `[HT206167] <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206167>`_ (CVE-2015-5312, CVE-2015-7500, CVE-2015-7942)
711
712* `Linux Kernel's BPF verifier <https://github.com/iovisor/bpf-fuzzer>`_
713
714* `Linux Kernel's Crypto code <https://www.spinics.net/lists/stable/msg199712.html>`_
715
716* Capstone: `[1] <https://github.com/aquynh/capstone/issues/600>`__ `[2] <https://github.com/aquynh/capstone/commit/6b88d1d51eadf7175a8f8a11b690684443b11359>`__
717
718* file:`[1] <http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=550>`__  `[2] <http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=551>`__  `[3] <http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=553>`__  `[4] <http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=554>`__
719
720* Radare2: `[1] <https://github.com/revskills?tab=contributions&from=2016-04-09>`__
721
722* gRPC: `[1] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6071/commits/df04c1f7f6aec6e95722ec0b023a6b29b6ea871c>`__ `[2] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6071/commits/22a3dfd95468daa0db7245a4e8e6679a52847579>`__ `[3] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6071/commits/9cac2a12d9e181d130841092e9d40fa3309d7aa7>`__ `[4] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6012/commits/82a91c91d01ce9b999c8821ed13515883468e203>`__ `[5] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6202/commits/2e3e0039b30edaf89fb93bfb2c1d0909098519fa>`__ `[6] <https://github.com/grpc/grpc/pull/6106/files>`__
723
724* WOFF2: `[1] <https://github.com/google/woff2/commit/a15a8ab>`__
725
726* LLVM: `Clang <https://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=23057>`_, `Clang-format <https://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=23052>`_, `libc++ <https://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=24411>`_, `llvm-as <https://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=24639>`_, `Demangler <https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=606626>`_, Disassembler: http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247405, http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247414, http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247416, http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247417, http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247420, http://reviews.llvm.org/rL247422.
727
728* Tensorflow: `[1] <https://da-data.blogspot.com/2017/01/finding-bugs-in-tensorflow-with.html>`__
729
730* Ffmpeg: `[1] <https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/commit/c92f55847a3d9cd12db60bfcd0831ff7f089c37c>`__  `[2] <https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/commit/25ab1a65f3acb5ec67b53fb7a2463a7368f1ad16>`__  `[3] <https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/commit/85d23e5cbc9ad6835eef870a5b4247de78febe56>`__ `[4] <https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/commit/04bd1b38ee6b8df410d0ab8d4949546b6c4af26a>`__
731
732* `Wireshark <https://bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=CONFIRMED&bug_status=IN_PROGRESS&bug_status=INCOMPLETE&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&f0=OP&f1=OP&f2=product&f3=component&f4=alias&f5=short_desc&f7=content&f8=CP&f9=CP&j1=OR&o2=substring&o3=substring&o4=substring&o5=substring&o6=substring&o7=matches&order=bug_id%20DESC&query_format=advanced&v2=libfuzzer&v3=libfuzzer&v4=libfuzzer&v5=libfuzzer&v6=libfuzzer&v7=%22libfuzzer%22>`_
733
734* `QEMU <https://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2017/09/unit42-palo-alto-networks-discovers-new-qemu-vulnerability/>`_
735
736.. _pcre2: http://www.pcre.org/
737.. _AFL: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/
738.. _Radamsa: https://github.com/aoh/radamsa
739.. _SanitizerCoverage: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/SanitizerCoverage.html
740.. _SanitizerCoverageTraceDataFlow: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/SanitizerCoverage.html#tracing-data-flow
741.. _AddressSanitizer: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/AddressSanitizer.html
742.. _LeakSanitizer: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/LeakSanitizer.html
743.. _Heartbleed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed
744.. _FuzzerInterface.h: https://github.com/llvm-mirror/compiler-rt/blob/master/lib/fuzzer/FuzzerInterface.h
745.. _3.7.0: http://llvm.org/releases/3.7.0/docs/LibFuzzer.html
746.. _building Clang from trunk: http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html
747.. _MemorySanitizer: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/MemorySanitizer.html
748.. _UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.html
749.. _`coverage counters`: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/SanitizerCoverage.html#coverage-counters
750.. _`value profile`: #value-profile
751.. _`caller-callee pairs`: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/SanitizerCoverage.html#caller-callee-coverage
752.. _BoringSSL: https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/
753
754