ALEmu: A Framework for Application-layer Programs Emulation of Embedded Devices

The difference between real devices and virtual environments causes a low success rate of application-layer program emulation when the firmware is operating in full-system emulation during the dynamic analysis of the firmware of embedded devices. In this paper, we propose ALEmu, an emulation framework for application-layer programs, which can effectively improve the emulation success rate of application-layer programs in embedded device firmware through automatic preprocessing of target programs, building configuration libraries, and hooking external program calls. When we test ALEmu on a variety of real-world devices, including routers and IP cameras, we find that it performs more successfully and accurately than the current state-of-the-art full-system emulation frameworks like Firmadyne and FirmAE.