The results stem from more than 4.8 billion fuzz tests conducted by Synopsys’ customers in 2016 using the Defensics® Fuzz Testing solution. Download the full copy of the Synopsys State of Fuzzing 2017 report. “Fuzz testing is a powerful component of the Synopsys Software Integrity Platform to uncover zero-day vulnerabilities and help organizations protect their software,” said Andreas Kuehlmann, senior vice president and general manager for the Synopsys Software Integrity Group. “By analysing such a large data set from our customers, the Synopsys’ fuzzing report provides visibility into unknown, hard-to-find vulnerabilities and highlights where security teams should look to improve the quality and security of their software.”
Major findings of the Synopsys State of Fuzzing 2017 include:
- The overall average time to first failure (TTFF) — the first instance when a protocol crash is recorded — was 1.4 hours. In the case of more mature protocols, the length of time is in hours. But with less mature protocols, that time could be as short as a few seconds, indicating a higher likelihood of exploitable vulnerabilities.
- The least mature protocol tested in 2016 was IEC-61850 MMS (ICS). This is a niche protocol used in IoT and industrial control systems. The average TTFF for IEC-61850 MMS was 6.6 seconds.
- The most mature protocol tested in 2016 was TLS client (Core IP). This is commonly used for secure web browsing including online banking and e-commerce. The average TTFF for TLS client was 9 hours.
According to a recent Forrester Research report, “Security pros have applied fuzz testing and application hardening tools on web applications for many years. However, these tools are finding new footholds in the IoT market, where applications are hard to crawl with traditional prerelease testing tools like DAST and face the same tampering threats as mobile applications. As IoT applications become more prevalent, expect fuzz testing and application hardening tools to have a rebirth.”1
