Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Semantic Templates To Study Vulnerabilities Recorded In Large Software Repositories, Yan Wu

Student Work

Software vulnerabilities allow an attacker to reduce a system's Confidentiality, Availability, and Integrity by exposing information, executing malicious code, and undermine system functionalities that contribute to the overall system purpose and need. With new vulnerabilities discovered everyday in a variety of applications and user environments, a systematic study of their characteristics is a subject of immediate need for the following reasons:

• The high rate in which information about past and new vulnerabilities are accumulated makes it difficult to absorb and comprehend.
• Rather than learning from past mistakes, similar types of vulnerabilities are observed repeatedly.
• As the scale and complexity of …