On the scalable dynamic taint analysis for distributed systems

Abstract

To protect the privacy and search sensitive data leaks, we must solve multiple challenges (e.g., applicability, portability, and scalability) for developing an appropriate taint analysis for distributed systems.We hence present DistTaint, a dynamic taint analysis for distributed systems against these challenges. It could infer implicit dependencies from partial-ordering method events in executions to resolve the applicability challenge. DistTaint fully works at application-level without any customization of platforms to overcome the portability challenge. It exploits a multi-phase analysis to achieve scalability. By proposing a pre-analysis, DistTaint narrows down the following fine-grained analysis’ scope to reduce the overall cost significantly. Empirical results showed DistTaint’s practical applicability, portability, and scalability to industry-scale distributed programs, and its capability of discovering security vulnerabilities in real-world distributed systems. The tool package can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kfr9ixucyny1jp2/AAC00aI-I8O-d4ywZCqwZ1uaa?dl=0