Adding Compilation Metadata To Binaries To Make Disassembly Decidable

TL;DR

This paper introduces a binary format with embedded metadata that clarifies compiler intent, enhancing software safety, maintainability, and analysis without impacting runtime performance.

Contribution

It proposes a new binary format with compiler intent metadata, enabling reliable lifting, analysis, and recompilation, improving over traditional stripped binaries and DWARF.

Findings

Metadata adds roughly 17% of DWARF size

Binaries can be lifted, instrumented, and recompiled correctly

Metadata does not affect runtime behavior or performance

Abstract

The binary executable format is the standard method for distributing and executing software. Yet, it is also as opaque a representation of software as can be. If the binary format were augmented with metadata that provides security-relevant information, such as which data is intended by the compiler to be executable instructions, or how memory regions are expected to be bounded, that would dramatically improve the safety and maintainability of software. In this paper, we propose a binary format that is a middle ground between a stripped black-box binary and open source. We provide a tool that generates metadata capturing the compiler's intent and inserts it into the binary. This metadata enables lifting to a correct and recompilable higher-level representation and makes analysis and instrumentation more reliable. Our evaluation shows that adding metadata does not affect runtime behavior or performance. Compared to DWARF, our metadata is roughly 17% of its size. We validate correctness by compiling a comprehensive set of real-world C and C++ binaries and demonstrating that they can be lifted, instrumented, and recompiled without altering their behavior.