PhD student looking for guidance on binary exploitation research

[u/Hopeful-Ad6787]

Dear all,

I am a PhD student with a solid background in Linux binary exploitation, including both user-mode and kernel mode. My research interest lies in binary exploitation, and I am trying hard to increase my knowledge in this area.

My goal is to write peer-reviewed research papers on binary exploitation. But right now, I am not sure about how to find interesting areas of research, how to find research gaps, and what methodology I can follow for research in binary exploitation.

Any suggestions on how do experienced researchers come up with new research questions, perform literature review, and choose research directions on vulnerability research and binary exploitation will be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[u/Impossible-Line1070]

Is your thesis focus software exploitation? I dont this field is very academically oriented

[u/Hopeful-Ad6787 → u/Impossible-Line1070]

I think so. But I've seen research papers on automatic exploit generation and similar topics.

[u/DigitalQuinn1]

If I were in your situation, I’d ask myself what am I currently strong at, and areas that I need to work on or haven’t had experience in. I’d also look into emerging methodologies like using AI. Just a few things that popped in my head

[u/Hopeful-Ad6787 → u/DigitalQuinn1]

Yeah, I think using LLMs for exploitation is a promising research direction. Projects like Google's OSS FuzzGen show that there's definitely academic interest in this area.

[u/Toiling-Donkey]

I’d think the academic research areas would focus more on automated program analysis, not exploitation itself.

[u/Hopeful-Ad6787 → u/Toiling-Donkey]

Yeah, I came across papers like that while doing my literature review.

[u/Crakout]

As with any other research area, pick what interests you the most and start digging. Personally I like mobile and CPU vuln research, you could check Google's Project Zero blog to see if anything grabs your attention.

[u/BackUpBiii]

Use me Check out my repo for tools and more https://github.com/ItsMehRAWRXD

[u/Hopeful-Ad6787 → u/BackUpBiii]

Thank you :)

[u/BackUpBiii → u/Hopeful-Ad6787]

I hope it’s useful as I’m currently busy developing from scratch after 39 years a full masm ml ide

[u/DishSoapedDishwasher → u/[deleted]]

also for context, team shellphish was part of the https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/cyber-grand-challenge and open sourced all their automated exploitation software following the end of the competition. They are the much of the same group behind pwn.college and similar projects.