Project description
In vivo analysis solution for automated software security
Rapidly expanding digitalisation and dependence on computing have led to growing concerns over cybersecurity. Despite the creation of techniques and methodologies for discovering, diagnosing and repairing security flaws in systems, the increasing complexity and speed of threats is more than a match for current solutions. Funded by the European Research Council, the AT_SCALE project will develop scalable and reliable techniques for the automatic discovery, diagnosis and repair of security flaws in software systems. It will conduct a revolutionary in vivo analysis approach to overcome previous issues of false positives, false negatives and other key challenges, through the cloning and running of systems to accurately and precisely detect vulnerabilities.
Objective
Project AT_SCALE will develop the most scalable and reliable techniques for the automatic discovery, diagnosis, and repair of security flaws in software systems to-date. AT_SCALE will make fundamental breakthroughs in empirical methods for reasoning about software systems as they are running in production.
Existing scalable techniques for automatic vulnerability discovery and detection provide unreliable results, which limits their utility and threatens the security of our digital world. Static analysis reasons over a model of software executions; it reports too many bugs that do not exist (false positives) and fails to report those that do (false negatives). Fuzzing reasons over artificial executions and thus misses critical security flaws. Statistical claims about the absence of bugs are fundamentally limited to the set of artificial executions.
These challenges will be effectively tackled by in-vivo software analysis. Our approach is inspired by the in-vivo approach in biology. A biologist studies complex organisms like we study software systems, either by analyzing a model or under artificial lab conditions. Yet, some behavior is difficult to induce artificially. An in-vivo approach allows us to make empirical statements about properties of a system of arbitrary size within its natural environment. However, unlike in biology, we can clone the entire, running system millions of times per second to run as many concurrent experiments with no impact on the original system.
In 2024, the global, annual cost for cybercrime is expected to exceed 10 trillion EUR, highlighting the need for scalable and reliable software security analysis techniques. AT_SCALE will deliver effective technology to fortify Europe’s digital infrastructure against cyberattacks.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.