Variegate is a source code diversification tool. It addresses the problem of IT monocultures, where malware attacks that succeed on one instance of a deployed program often succeed against all instances. By diversifying the deployed programs in a functionality-preserving way, Variegate creates a population of correct versions of the same program with a varied attack surface.
Variegate takes in an original program and a test suite, and produces a set of program variants that retain functionality while achieving binary diversity. Variegate works by applying mutations to the source code of the original program. Mutations range from simple (code deletions) to complex (structured refactorings such as variable or function inlining or extraction).
Variegate ensures that mutations do not affect the program's functionality, by checking that the transformed program behaves correctly on the test suite. If an extensive test suite is not available, Variegate can sill be used if it is restricted to safe, functionality-preserving mutations, such as those that mimic refactoring code changes.
This material is based upon work supported by the Navy, the Office of Naval Research and DARPA under Contract(s) No. N68335-17-C-0700 and D17PC00096. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Navy, the Office of Naval Research or DARPA.
