LLM-Boofuzz: Generation-Based Black-Box Fuzzing for Network Protocols via LLMs

Identifying network protocol vulnerabilities is critical for cyberspace security. Generation-based black-box protocol fuzzing is widely used but faces challenges: over-reliance on manual protocol analysis and script writing, single-threaded fuzzing, and lack of dynamic fuzzing strategy optimization. To address these, we propose LLM-Boofuzz, a generation-based black-box protocol fuzzing framework via Large Language Models (LLMs). It leverages LLMs to parse real traffic to extract protocol information, guides LLMs to generate executable scripts with a repair mechanism, and enables multi-script iterative fuzzing via an LLM-based agent. Experiments show that LLM-Boofuzz outperforms state-of-the-art tools: it triggers all 15 test vulnerabilities (vs. 8/7/7 for Boofuzz/Snipuzz/AFLNet) and achieves an average 53.4% code line coverage on two protocol programs (vs. 30.65%/31.95%/41.65%), providing an efficient solution for network protocol fuzzing.

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Publication Details

Journal
Electronics
Published
2025-11-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14234550
Primary Topic
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

LLM-Boofuzz: Generation-Based Black-Box Fuzzing for Network Protocols via LLMs

Miao Hu, Zulie Pan, Zixiong Li, Yifan Zhang et al.
Electronics
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
article

LLM-Boofuzz: Generation-Based Black-Box Fuzzing for Network Protocols via LLMs

Miao Hu, Zulie Pan, Zixiong Li, Yifan Zhang, Qiangpu Chen, Yuwei Li, Tian Wang, Qian Chen
article en

Abstract

Identifying network protocol vulnerabilities is critical for cyberspace security. Generation-based black-box protocol fuzzing is widely used but faces challenges: over-reliance on manual protocol analysis and script writing, single-threaded fuzzing, and lack of dynamic fuzzing strategy optimization. To address these, we propose LLM-Boofuzz, a generation-based black-box protocol fuzzing framework via Large Language Models (LLMs). It leverages LLMs to parse real traffic to extract protocol information, guides LLMs to generate executable scripts with a repair mechanism, and enables multi-script iterative fuzzing via an LLM-based agent. Experiments show that LLM-Boofuzz outperforms state-of-the-art tools: it triggers all 15 test vulnerabilities (vs. 8/7/7 for Boofuzz/Snipuzz/AFLNet) and achieves an average 53.4% code line coverage on two protocol programs (vs. 30.65%/31.95%/41.65%), providing an efficient solution for network protocol fuzzing.

ElectronicsVol. 14(23)
Anhui University (CN), National University of Defense Technology (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 64%
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
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LLM-Boofuzz: Generation-Based Black-Box Fuzzing for Network Protocols via LLMs — Miao Hu, Zulie Pan, et al. · Electronics (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS