Re: Difference between syzkaller and syzbot?

[Dmitry Vyukov]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 1:22 PM, Tetsuo Handa
<penguin...@i-love.sakura.ne.jp> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> In my slides for newbie engineers who started learning programming, I'd like to
> refer to syzkaller/syzbot as one of projects for help debugging Linux kernels.
> Therefore, I want to know the difference between syzkaller and syzbot.
> Currently, I'm describing them as below.
>
> syzkaller is a program for finding bugs by generating/testing various
> testcases regarding system calls (a method for calling functionality
> provided by kernels).
>
> syzbot is a program for executing testcases syzkaller has generated
> on a platform called Google Compute Engine and for trying to generate
> programs for reproducing bugs (in other words, identify conditions for
> triggering problematic events).
>
> Since this description is for newbie engineers, I want to avoid using
> difficult terminology/concept (e.g. "coverage-guided", "fuzzer").
> Am I describing them correctly? Or, am I misunderstanding something?

+syzkaller mailing list

Hi Tetsuo,

This is not completely precise. syzkaller generates reproducers and
can run on GCE too.

Besides what you said about syzkaller, it also:
- generates reproducers
- analyzes kernel output, creates reports and deduplicates them
- supports multiple target OSes and VM types (qemu, android phones,
arm boards, GCE)

But all resulting artifacts are just files on your local disk. Also
single syzkaller instance tests a single kernel.

syzbot is higher-level automation on top of syzkaller and it handles:
- continuous kernel/syzkaller builds
- multiple syzkaller instances testing different kernels
- crash deduplication across all these instances
- bug reporting and automatic bug status tracking
- and also provides the web ui

[Tetsuo Handa]

OK. Then, I will update like below.

syzkaller is a program for finding bugs by generating/testing various
testcases regarding system calls (a method for calling functionality

provided by kernels), generating reports, and trying to generate programs

for reproducing bugs (in other words, identify conditions for triggering
problematic events).

syzbot is a program for controlling execution of syzkaller program,
summarizing what syzkaller has generated, tracking state of bugs and
providing web interface.

Does continuous syzkaller builds mean that reflect changes made for
improving what syzkaller generates (e.g. add new testcases, follow
kernel code changes) ?

[Dmitry Vyukov]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 3:31 PM, Tetsuo Handa

Yes. In practice it means that besides continuously polling kernel
repositories and building new kernels (always testing the latest
version), it also continuously polls and builds syzkaller and always
uses latest syzkaller version. So any commit to syzkaller almost
immediately takes effect on syzbot.

[Heyuan Shi]

Hello Dmitry，

Can I deploy syz-bot to achieve the continuous fuzzing  in my current developing branch with some patches?

I have deployed syz-manager based on the tutorial in github.

Is there any tutorial for syz-bot deployment?

Thanks!

在 2018年6月28日星期四 UTC+8下午9:35:55，Dmitry Vyukov写道：

[Dmitry Vyukov]

On Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 8:09 AM Heyuan Shi <shihe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Dmitry，
>
> Can I deploy syz-bot to achieve the continuous fuzzing in my current developing branch with some patches?
> I have deployed syz-manager based on the tutorial in github.
> Is there any tutorial for syz-bot deployment?

syzbot is complex to deploy and maintain. Start with syz-ci, it may be
what you are looking for. Search the group for syz-ci.

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[Heyuan Shi]

Thanks!

在 2019年3月4日星期一 UTC+8下午5:15:14，Dmitry Vyukov写道：

[Jukka Kaartinen]

Hi Dmitry,

I have a client that is asking me to setup syzbot for their internal development.

Any advice where to start? :)

We have syz-ci already running but it is not enough. We need the bisect feature that syzbot has. We also have plans to improve it.

-Jukka

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[Jukka Kaartinen]

+Dmitry

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--

Br,

Jukka Kaartinen

[Dmitry Vyukov]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 1:21 PM Jukka Kaartinen
<jukka.k...@unikie.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Dmitry,
>
> I have a client that is asking me to setup syzbot for their internal development.
> Any advice where to start? :)
>
> We have syz-ci already running but it is not enough. We need the bisect feature that syzbot has. We also have plans to improve it.

Hi Jukka,

Here are the docs we have:
https://github.com/google/syzkaller/tree/master/dashboard/app#dashboard
Not much. And note the note in the docs.

I know somebody is running a separate instance for powerpc, but I
never can find the url, syzkaller-something.appspot.com

Improving syzbot is definitely welcome.

[Jukka Kaartinen]

I saw you updated the docs. 

Note noted :).

--

Br,

Jukka Kaartinen