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ArchInfer: An Automatic Protocol Format Inference Algorithm Based on Dynamic Program Analysis

  • Kehan Wang
  • , Fanghui Sun*
  • , Tingyue Yu
  • , Zihong Chen
  • , Zhengze Wu
  • , Shen Wang
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Harbin Institute of Technology
  • China National Tobacco Corporation Fujian Company
  • Fujian Tobacco Company Zhangzhou City Company

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Protocol reverse engineering is crucial in the face of numerous unknown protocols on the Internet. However, conventional protocol reverse engineering relies heavily on manual analysis, which is both inefficient and time-consuming. This paper proposes ArchInfer, a novel approach to infer the message field types of protocol terminal programs based on execution traces. We first introduce the concepts of logical locations and logical variables, and propose classification criteria for machine instructions. On this basis, we present the ArchInfer algorithm, which performs different operations based on instruction types to infer the types of logical variables. Experimental results using open-source terminal programs demonstrate that ArchInfer outperforms existing methods in both the accuracy and completeness of inferred message field types.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing - Proceedings of the 20th IIHMSP 2024 in Conjunction with the 19th ISME 2024
EditorsJunzo Watada, Roumiana Kountcheva, Chin-Shiuh Shieh, Shu-Chuan Chu, Shih-Pang Tseng
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages93-105
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9789819668588
DOIs
StatePublished - 2026
Externally publishedYes
Event20th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, IIHMSP 2024 is held in conjunction with the 19th International Symposium on Management Engineering, ISME 2024 - Matsue, Japan
Duration: 4 Oct 20246 Oct 2024

Publication series

NameSmart Innovation, Systems and Technologies
Volume119 SIST
ISSN (Print)2190-3018
ISSN (Electronic)2190-3026

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, IIHMSP 2024 is held in conjunction with the 19th International Symposium on Management Engineering, ISME 2024
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityMatsue
Period4/10/246/10/24

Keywords

  • Binary analysis
  • Dynamic analysis
  • Protocol reverse engineering

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