FUZZUER: Enabling Fuzzing of UEFI Interfaces on EDK-2

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification describes a platform-independent pre-boot interface for an Operating System (OS).EDK-2 Vulnerabilities in UEFI interface functions have severe consequences and can lead to Bootkits and other persistent malware resilient to OS reinstallations.However, there exist no vulnerability detection techniques for UEFI interfaces.We present FUZZUER, a feedback-guided fuzzing technique for UEFI interfaces on EDK-2, an exemplary and prevalently used UEFI implementation.We designed FIRNESS that utilizes static analysis techniques to automatically generate fuzzing harnesses for interface functions.We evaluated FUZZUER on the latest version of EDK-2.Our comprehensive evaluation on 150 interface functions demonstrates that FUZZUER with FIR-NESS is an effective testing technique of EDK-2's UEFI interface functions, greatly outperforming HBFA, an existing testing tool with manually written harnesses.We found 20 new security vulnerabilities, and most of these are already acknowledged by the developers.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14722/ndss.2025.240400
Primary Topic
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

FUZZUER: Enabling Fuzzing of UEFI Interfaces on EDK-2

Aravind Machiry, Connor Glosner
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
article

FUZZUER: Enabling Fuzzing of UEFI Interfaces on EDK-2

Aravind Machiry, Connor Glosner
article en

Abstract

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification describes a platform-independent pre-boot interface for an Operating System (OS).EDK-2 Vulnerabilities in UEFI interface functions have severe consequences and can lead to Bootkits and other persistent malware resilient to OS reinstallations.However, there exist no vulnerability detection techniques for UEFI interfaces.We present FUZZUER, a feedback-guided fuzzing technique for UEFI interfaces on EDK-2, an exemplary and prevalently used UEFI implementation.We designed FIRNESS that utilizes static analysis techniques to automatically generate fuzzing harnesses for interface functions.We evaluated FUZZUER on the latest version of EDK-2.Our comprehensive evaluation on 150 interface functions demonstrates that FUZZUER with FIR-NESS is an effective testing technique of EDK-2's UEFI interface functions, greatly outperforming HBFA, an existing testing tool with manually written harnesses.We found 20 new security vulnerabilities, and most of these are already acknowledged by the developers.

Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Openalex Percentile: Top 95%
Embedded Systems Design Techniques
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.