Lightweight, Multi-Stage, Compiler-Assisted Application Specialization

TL;DR

This paper introduces LMCAS, a compiler-assisted, multi-stage approach for program debloating that applies partial evaluation to produce faster, safer, and more compact specialized applications by removing unwanted features and reducing vulnerabilities.

Contribution

LMCAS is a novel, safe, and efficient partial-evaluation based method for application debloating that outperforms existing tools in speed, size reduction, and security enhancement.

Findings

LMCAS runs up to 1500x faster than prior tools.

Achieves 25% binary size reduction.

Removes over 50% of gadgets and 83% of CVEs.

Abstract

Program debloating aims to enhance the performance and reduce the attack surface of bloated applications. Several techniques have been recently proposed to specialize programs. These approaches are either based on unsound strategies or demanding techniques, leading to unsafe results or a high overhead debloating process. In this paper, we address these limitations by applying partial-evaluation principles to generate specialized applications. Our approach relies on a simple observation that an application typically consists of configuration logic, followed by the main logic of the program. The configuration logic specifies what functionality in the main logic should be executed. LMCAS performs partial interpretation to capture a precise program state of the configuration logic based on the supplied inputs. LMCAS then applies partial-evaluation optimizations to generate a specialized program by propagating the constants in the captured partial state, eliminating unwanted code, and preserving the desired functionalities. Our evaluation of LMCAS on commonly used benchmarks and real-world applications shows that it successfully removes unwanted features while preserving the functionality and robustness of the deblated programs, runs faster than prior tools, and reduces the attack surface of specialized programs. LMCAS runs 1500x, 4.6x, and 1.2x faster than the state-of-the-art debloating tools CHISEL, RAZOR, and OCCAM, respectively; achieves 25% reduction in the binary size; reduces the attack surface of code-reuse attacks by removing 51.7% of the total gadgets and eliminating 83% of known CVE vulnerabilities