FSE 2026
Sun 5 - Thu 9 July 2026 Montreal, Canada
Wed 8 Jul 2026 15:10 - 15:30 at MB 3.430 - Program analysis 2 Chair(s): Amiangshu Bosu

Control-flow reconstruction is a fundamental yet challenging problem in firmware analysis, particularly for stripped or raw-format binaries that lack symbolic metadata. Existing methods typically rely on syntax heuristics or format-specific patterns, which are inadequate for real-world firmware that includes indirect jumps, manually crafted assembly, and limited metadata.

We present a semantics-guided static analysis framework for accurate control-flow reconstruction in stripped ELF and raw-format firmware binaries. Our approach consists of two complementary components: (i) an intra-procedural control-flow reconstruction method that incrementally recovers direct branches, indirect jumps, and call-return flows via fixpoint-guided value-flow analysis; and (ii) an inter-procedural analysis that resolves indirect calls through cross-function value tracking and loop-structure matching. By decoupling control-flow reasoning from instruction semantics and function abstraction, our framework robustly handles tightly intertwined control-flow patterns and mitigates the impact of misanalysis.

We implement our approach in Scarf (\textit{\underline{S}emantics-guided} \textit{\underline{C}ontrol-flow} \textit{\underline{A}nalysis} for \textit{\underline{R}aw and} \textit{\underline{F}irmware binaries}) and evaluate it on over 300 real-world firmware binaries in both ELF and raw formats. Compared with state-of-the-art reverse engineering tools, Scarf consistently achieves higher precision in control-flow recovery and demonstrates clear advantages on raw firmware, especially in resolving indirect jumps, call–return flows, and indirect calls. These results demonstrate that semantics-guided analysis provides a robust and scalable foundation for control flow reconstruction in metadata-deficient firmware.

Wed 8 Jul

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

14:00 - 15:30
Program analysis 2Research Papers / Ideas, Visions and Reflections at MB 3.430
Chair(s): Amiangshu Bosu Wayne State University
14:00
10m
Talk
Class Archetypes: Principles, Detection, Evolution
Ideas, Visions and Reflections
Mattia Giannaccari REVEAL @ Software Institute – USI, Lugano, Switzerland, Marco Raglianti REVEAL @ Software Institute – USI, Lugano, Switzerland, Michele Lanza Software Institute - USI, Lugano
14:10
20m
Talk
Improving Data Leakage Detection in Machine Learning Notebooks through Static Slicing and Structured LLM Prompts
Research Papers
Taha Draoui University of Michigan-Flint, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer University of Michigan-Flint, Christian D. Newman Rochester Institute of Technology
14:30
20m
Talk
TypePro: Boosting LLM-Based Type Inference via Inter-Procedural Slicing
Research Papers
linTeyu Xiamen University, Minghao Fan Xiamen University, Huaxun Huang Xiamen University, Zhirong Shen Xiamen University, Rongxin Wu Xiamen University
Pre-print
14:50
20m
Talk
Sound Termination and Non-Termination Analysis of C Programs with Bit-Precise Bounded Semantics and Advanced Constructs
Research Papers
Negar Fathi University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Hiroshi Unno Tohoku University, Tachio Terauchi Waseda University, Rahul Purandare University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Pre-print
15:10
20m
Talk
Semantics-Guided Control-Flow Reconstruction for Firmware Binaries via Static Analysis
Research Papers
Fengjuan Gao Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Qingjie Zhu Nanjing University, Yi Zhang Nanjing University, Yu Wang Nanjing University, Xuandong Li Nanjing University, Ke Wang Nanjing University