Fuzzing
A security testing technique that inputs random or malformed data to find vulnerabilities in software.
Understanding Fuzzing
Fuzzing is a proactive approach to discovering security vulnerabilities in applications, network protocols, and operating systems. By continuously generating and injecting random or structured test cases, security researchers can uncover memory corruption, buffer overflows, race conditions, and logic errors that could be exploited by attackers.
Types of Fuzzing
Mutation-Based Fuzzing – Modifies existing inputs to generate new test cases.
Generation-Based Fuzzing – Creates test inputs from scratch using predefined rules.
Coverage-Guided Fuzzing – Uses feedback mechanisms to refine test inputs based on code execution paths.
Protocol Fuzzing – Tests network protocols by injecting malformed or unexpected packets.
Challenges and Considerations
High False Positives – Some test cases may trigger non-exploitable crashes.
Resource-Intensive – Fuzzing requires significant computational power and time.
Manual Triage Needed – Analysts must investigate crashes to determine exploitability.