Students: Angel Ortiz, Emmanuel De La Paz
For an organization whose code has been affected by vulnerabilities, it is important to have an indication of the vulnerable part of their code that can be exploited. By knowing this, software vendors can be more prepared to counteract potential attacks. Many software vendors are forced to search for such code snippets in online databases, such as the Exploit Database (EDB) Website. Though the information obtained from these sources is valuable and valid, it is not organized in a standardized way that could be easily searchable.
The goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of processing and publishing these vulnerabilities while also reducing the reliance on human resources.
Dr Joanna Cecilia da Silva Santos' research lies in understanding weaknesses and vulnerabilities through empirical studies to devise novel automated techniques for the development of secure software systems, from inception to deployment. Her work draws on program analysis, software verification, and machine learning algorithms to solve software engineering and security problems such as software vulnerabilities detection, reasoning and formal modeling of architectural properties, and software architecture reverse engineering.