A software vulnerability orientation method based on complex network

Abstract

Software vulnerability orientation is of great significance to vulnerability exploiting and vulnerability repairing. This paper presents a new method of vulnerability orientation based on complex network theory. We describe the software structure by system-level characteristics of complex network and generate structural signatures of original and patched software. By comparing patches of the similar signatures and splitting the connected components recursively, the vulnerability location can be orientated. Results of the experiments demonstrate the effective orientation power of this method.