Inception: An Extendable Virtual Execution Framework to Support Dynamic Code Analysis of Embedded Systems

In this proposed effort, we propose to develop an extendible virtual execution framework to support dynamic code analysis of embedded systems. The key innovation of this proposal includes developments of: (1) an extendible virtual processor subsystem which can integrate a broach set of processor architectures with different instruction-set architecture (ISA) (ARM, PowerPC, RISC-V) and memory architecture; (2) an extendible virtual device subsystem which can integrate different hardware device models with the virtual processor subsystem to perform full-system virtual execution environment for different embedded systems; (3) an extendible Dynamic Code Analysis (DCA) plugin module which can integrate different Virtual Machine Introspection (VMI) techniques to monitor and analyze runtime software systems. The extendible virtual execution framework can efficiently integrate multiple virtual processors and devices into a virtual runtime system. Finally, all the proposed techniques will be integrated in a functional prototype to demonstrate the feasibility. Approved for Public Release |21-MDA-10789 (21 Apr 21)