Binary Test: A Comprehensive Approach to Software Security

Binary test is a crucial step in ensuring the security of software. It's a thorough examination of a program's binary code to identify vulnerabilities and potential security risks.

By analyzing the binary code, developers can catch errors and weaknesses that might have been missed during the development process. This can save time and resources in the long run.

Binary test can be performed manually or using automated tools, depending on the complexity of the software and the resources available. In some cases, a combination of both manual and automated testing may be necessary.

The goal of binary test is to ensure that the software is secure and reliable, and that it meets the required standards for safety and security.

Application security testing has been around for a while, but the tools available are often targeted towards software developers, not consumers of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software.

There's no shortage of tools to identify, mitigate, and manage risk, but they're not designed to address the risks posed by modern software applications.

Consumers of COTS software, both open and closed source, are limited in their options because they often can't access the source code.

Even when source code is available, it's not always clear if it corresponds to the executable code used.

Security teams face a significant challenge in assessing the risks posed by COTS software.

The tools they have at their disposal were not built to address the risks of large, dynamic, and complex software applications.

This leaves organizations with a big question: how can they apply a consistent methodology to evaluate the security risk of both internally developed and externally procured software?

Static analysis is a consistent methodology that allows developers and consumers to examine compiled programs without executing them. This process is known as static binary analysis.

This method involves recursively unpacking software binary files, extracting metadata from embedded objects, and identifying internal static threat indicators. It's a detailed analysis that can be performed in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Static binary analysis doesn't require access to the source code, software build environment, or the cooperation of the software vendor. Organizations can deconstruct and analyze compiled open source and closed source software packages without constraints.

Using this method, organizations can identify sophisticated software tampering attacks by analyzing suspicious behaviors introduced between subsequent release/update packages. This includes attacks like SolarWinds SUNBURST and the 3CX hack.

Static binary analysis can also help detect secrets exposed in published source code, such as credentials, private keys, and access tokens. This can prevent unauthorized access required to carry out an attack.

Advanced binary analysis tools can model data types, flows, and control paths without the need to reverse-engineer. They can look deeper to identify known software components and detect security flaw patterns.

These discoveries can then be used to compile security and usage reports, along with advice on how to address any issues in the code.

Establishing control stage gates to prevent attacks is crucial for security practitioners who want to be viewed as value creators rather than business inhibitors.

Static binary analysis is a powerful tool that can rapidly detect certain kinds of vulnerabilities without significantly slowing operations, making it a great "Final Exam" for fully compiled software packages.

Performing static binary analysis on COTS software packages and subsequent releases prior to deployment can detect vulnerabilities, establishing trust that no additional components or dependencies will be appended to the package.

Publishers can perform static binary analysis on the final compiled artifact prior to publishing to downstream customers, or enforce binary analysis on externally managed components or dependencies earlier in the SDLC process.

However, even with early enforcement, the final compiled artifact still needs to be analyzed, as the process of building it might introduce a problem not detected in earlier enforcement.

Organizations with skilled resources and business appetite can pursue manual threat hunting efforts targeting specific attack techniques using open source tools like Ghidra, a software binary reverse engineering solution developed by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Static binary analysis isn't the only way to detect vulnerabilities and malicious code in compiled binaries. Dynamic behavioral analysis involves running the program and detecting behaviors that suggest unintentional vulnerabilities and malicious behavior.

This approach requires significant resources to gain non-trivial coverage, and its effectiveness depends on the inputs it's given and the behaviors that the system can detect. Dynamic behavioral analysis can't replace static binary analysis, but it can be used in combination with it when more resources are available.

Protecting build processes is crucial, and improving these protections can prevent many other problems. Open source software projects can demonstrate their protections, but it's harder for closed source projects to clearly explain the protections they undergo.

Reproducible builds can counter many build problems by independently verifying that the binary is generated from the putative source code. This approach requires the source code, which is available for open source software projects but often not available to consumers of closed source software.

Binary analysis tools can work in a manner similar to package manager inspectors, reading a file's "table of contents" to find out what's inside.

Some tools can model data types, flows, and control paths without the need to reverse-engineer, allowing for a deeper look into a program's inner workings.

This process can identify known software components and detect security flaw patterns, enabling the creation of security and usage reports.

Advanced binary analysis tools can also extract metadata from embedded objects, such as executables, libraries, and icons, providing a detailed analysis of a program's contents.

Static binary analysis examines a compiled program without executing it, allowing for a detailed analysis in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Binary analysis tools work by reading a file's "table of contents" to find out what's inside, similar to how package manager inspectors work.

This basic analysis may suffice in some cases, but advanced tools can model data types, flows, and control paths without the need to reverse-engineer.

Advanced binary analysis tools can look deeper to identify known software components and detect security flaw patterns.

Static binary analysis examines a compiled program without executing it, allowing for a detailed analysis in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Files are not executed, enabling a thorough analysis without constraints like requiring access to source code or the cooperation of the software vendor.

Static binary analysis can recursively unpack software binary files, extract metadata from embedded objects, and identify internal static threat indicators.

You can use bazelbuild/rules_docker#go_image, a Bazel aware method for building containers, as an alternative to your current approach.

This method is particularly useful for bundling binaries with data, where the files under the data attribute become a set of 'runfiles'.

For golang, you can use the bazel pkg in rules_go to resolve your runfiles.

Using this method can simplify your workflow and make your code more maintainable.