Department of Electrical Engineering Seminar
Speaker: Prof. Zhenkai Liang, National University of Singapore
Title: Scaling up Binary Analysis via Knowledge-oriented Techniques
Date: Thursday, June 13, 2019
Time: 11:00 am
Room: E-Quad, Room B205
Host: Prof. Ruby Lee
Abstract: Binary analysis is a fundamental technique in software and system
security. It has a wide range of applications, such as vulnerability
discovery, attack response, malware analysis, and software testing and
debugging. Due to the lack of high-level semantics and complex program
behaviors, it is challenging for binary analysis solutions to scale up to
large real-world binaries in practice. Existing solutions are often
task-driven and bounded by a practical time limit, which hinders
comprehensively understanding of binaries. Furthermore, it is difficult to
integrate the knowledge generated from different solutions. In this talk, we
discuss our research in scaling up binary analysis in a knowledge-oriented
manner. We believe knowledge abstraction is the key to scale up binary
analysis, where binary analysis solutions generate understandings that can
be shared and reused in other solution. Our investigation includes
techniques for knowledge extraction, tools for knowledge integration, and
platforms for knowledge accumulations and sharing. The accumulated
knowledge not only allows broader and deeper analysis into binaries. It also
enables emerging data-driven and learning techniques to be effectively
adopted in binary analysis solutions. In this talk, I will also share our
experience and reflection in system security education.
Bio: Zhenkai Liang is an Associate Professor of the School of Computing,
National University of Singapore. His main research interests are in system
and software security, web security, mobile security, and program analysis.
He is also the Co-Lead PI of National Cybersecurity R&D Lab in Singapore. He
has served as the technical program committee members of many system
security conferences, including the ACM Conference on Computer and
Communications Security (CCS), USENIX Security Symposium and the Network and
Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), as well as a member of NDSS
Steering Group. As a co-author, he received the Best Paper Award in ICECCS
2014, the Best Paper Award in W2SP 2014, the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper
Award at ESEC/FSE 2009, the Best Paper Award at USENIX Security Symposium
2007, and the Outstanding Paper Award at ACSAC 2003. He also won the Annual
Teaching Excellence Award of National University of Singapore in 2014 and
2015. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Stony Brook
University in 2006, and B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Economics from
Peking University in 1999.
