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