MIT System Fixes Software Bugs Without Access To Source Code

jan_jes writes: MIT researchers have presented a new system at the Association for Computing Machinery's Programming Language Design and Implementation conference that repairs software bugs by automatically importing functionality from other, more secure applications. According to MIT, "The system, dubbed CodePhage, doesn't require access to the source code of the applications. Instead, it analyzes the applications' execution and characterizes the types of security checks they perform. As a consequence, it can import checks from applications written in programming languages other than the one in which the program it's repairing was written."

Comments

Hmmm ....

[gstoddart]

And to whom do you file the bug report again?

I can just imagine it now "Yeah, we run this cool thing called CodePhage which patched the software, but now it broke". They'll laugh at you and hang up.

This sounds like an automated system for mangling together random bits of software and hoping you still have something usable.

"The longer-term vision is that you never have to write a piece of code that somebody else has written before," Rinard says. "The system finds that piece of code and automatically puts it together with whatever pieces of code you need to make your program work."

Sounds totally cool. Also sounds like complete fiction.

Re:Hmmm ....

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>>>> system finds that piece of code and automatically puts it together with whatever pieces of code you need to make your program work
>> sounds like complete fiction
I think we already do with with libraries and dependencies...just not at the executable level.

Sayonara Copy Protection and Key Checks!!!

[neversleepy]

Woo hoo. Finally I can treat the copy protection and CONSTANT recurring key checks as bugs in the software I have paid for!

Re:Sayonara Copy Protection and Key Checks!!!

[Bert64]

Pirates already have versions with these bugs fixed, widely available from various torrent sites.