Research project focused on developing sophisticated program analysis techniques specifically designed for WebAssembly (WASM) runtime environments. This work is conducted at Northeastern University as part of the SecLab research group.

Project Overview

WebAssembly has emerged as a critical technology for web applications, serverless computing, and edge deployment scenarios. However, the unique characteristics of WASM—its stack-based virtual machine, linear memory model, and sandboxed execution environment—present novel challenges for traditional program analysis approaches.

Research Goals

Security Analysis Framework

Developing comprehensive static and dynamic analysis techniques to: - Detect security vulnerabilities in WASM modules - Analyze control flow and data flow properties - Identify potential side-channel vulnerabilities - Validate memory safety properties

Performance Analysis

Creating tools to: - Profile WASM execution characteristics - Identify performance bottlenecks - Optimize module structure and execution patterns - Analyze resource consumption patterns

Formal Verification

Establishing foundations for: - Formal reasoning about WASM module properties - Verification of security policies - Correctness guarantees for critical applications - Integration with existing verification frameworks

Technical Approach

Static Analysis

  • Control Flow Graph Construction: Building precise CFGs for WASM bytecode
  • Data Flow Analysis: Tracking value propagation through the stack machine
  • Type Analysis: Leveraging WASM’s type system for enhanced precision
  • Inter-module Analysis: Handling WASM module composition and imports

Dynamic Analysis

  • Instrumentation Framework: Runtime monitoring of WASM execution
  • Trace Analysis: Capturing and analyzing execution traces
  • Fuzzing Integration: Automated test case generation for WASM modules
  • Performance Profiling: Real-time analysis of execution metrics

Tool Development

  • WASM Disassembler: Enhanced disassembly with analysis annotations
  • Visualization Tools: Interactive exploration of analysis results
  • Integration APIs: Connecting with existing security toolchains
  • Benchmarking Suite: Standardized evaluation of analysis techniques

Current Status

The project is actively developing: - Core analysis infrastructure for WASM bytecode processing - Integration with popular WASM runtimes (Wasmtime, Wasmer) - Case studies on real-world WASM applications - Performance evaluation against existing tools

Applications

The research has direct applications in: - Web Security: Analyzing client-side WASM modules for malicious behavior - Serverless Security: Ensuring isolation and security in FaaS platforms - Edge Computing: Validating WASM modules for IoT and edge deployment - Blockchain: Analyzing smart contracts compiled to WASM

Collaboration

This work involves collaboration with: - Industry partners deploying WASM in production - Academic researchers in programming languages and security - WASM runtime developers and standards committees - Open source security tool maintainers

Publications

Research findings and methodologies will be published in top-tier security and programming language venues. Stay tuned for updates on paper submissions and acceptances.

Future Directions

Planned extensions include: - Machine learning approaches for automated vulnerability detection - Integration with formal verification tools like Coq and Lean - Support for emerging WASM features (SIMD, threads, garbage collection) - Large-scale empirical studies of WASM ecosystem security