Concepedia

A Symbolic Execution Framework for JavaScript

Prateek Saxena, Devdatta Akhawe, Steve Hanna, Feng Mao, Stephen McCamant, Dawn Song

2010 · 456 citations · 20 references

TL;DR

AJAX applications are increasingly complex, yet few automated vulnerability analysis tools for client‑side JavaScript exist. The paper presents the first system for exploring the execution space of JavaScript code via symbolic execution. The authors design a new language of string constraints with an accompanying solver, build the end‑to‑end tool Kudzu, and apply it to detect client‑side code injection vulnerabilities. Experiments on 18 live web applications show Kudzu automatically discovers two previously unknown vulnerabilities and nine others that were only found with a manually constructed test suite.

Abstract

As AJAX applications gain popularity, client-side JavaScript code is becoming increasingly complex. However, few automated vulnerability analysis tools for JavaScript exist. In this paper, we describe the first system for exploring the execution space of JavaScript code using symbolic execution. To handle JavaScript code's complex use of string operations, we design a new language of string constraints and implement a solver for it. We build an automatic end-to-end tool, Kudzu, and apply it to the problem of finding client-side code injection vulnerabilities. In experiments on 18 live web applications, Kudzu automatically discovers 2 previously unknown vulnerabilities and 9 more that were previously found only with a manually-constructed test suite.