libfuzzer-cpp

Overview

This skill wraps LLVM's libFuzzer (per llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html (opens in new window)) for C/C++ targets. Composes with:

• sanitiser-integration-reference for ASan + UBSan integration
• corpus-management-reference for seed / evolved-corpus / crash artefact discipline

When to use

• Fuzzing a C / C++ library function (parser, decoder, validator).
• Targeting a specific function - in-process fuzzing is faster than out-of-process AFL.
• Pairing with ASan + UBSan for memory-safety + UB detection.

Authoring

The fuzz target

Define the entry point LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput:

#include <cstddef>
#include <cstdint>
#include "your_library.h"

extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *Data, size_t Size) {
    your_parser(Data, Size);
    return 0;
}

Per LLVM docs, the function signature is fixed: takes a const byte buffer + size, returns int (must return 0 for normal execution; non-zero values are reserved).

The fuzzer calls this function repeatedly with mutated Data. The target's job is to drive the library code under test and let sanitisers + asserts catch bugs.

Initialisation

Optional one-time setup:

extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerInitialize(int *argc, char ***argv) {
    your_library_init();
    return 0;
}

Build

Standard build flag:

clang -g -O1 \
  -fsanitize=fuzzer,address,undefined \
  -fno-sanitize-recover=all \
  -fno-omit-frame-pointer \
  fuzz_target.cc your_library.cc -o fuzz_target

Per sanitiser-integration-reference: ASan + UBSan is the default pair; add MSan in a separate binary if needed.

Tips for an effective target

FuzzedDataProvider (from LLVM's compiler-rt/include/fuzzer/FuzzedDataProvider.h):

#include <fuzzer/FuzzedDataProvider.h>

extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *Data, size_t Size) {
    FuzzedDataProvider fdp(Data, Size);
    int port = fdp.ConsumeIntegralInRange(1, 65535);
    std::string host = fdp.ConsumeRandomLengthString(64);
    std::vector<uint8_t> body = fdp.ConsumeRemainingBytes<uint8_t>();
    your_request_handler(host, port, body);
    return 0;
}

Running

Basic run

mkdir corpus/ seeds/
# Populate seeds/ with hand-curated inputs
./fuzz_target -max_total_time=3600 corpus/ seeds/

The first directory is writable (evolved corpus); subsequent are read-only seeds (per corpus-management-reference).

Common flags

Most-used: -max_total_time=N, -runs=N (-1 = infinite), -dict=path, -fork=N, -workers=N, -merge=1 (corpus minimisation), -rss_limit_mb=N (default 2048), -timeout=N (per-input, default 1200). Full table (per llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html (opens in new window)): references/flags-and-ci.md.

Parallel fuzzing

./fuzz_target -fork=8 -max_total_time=3600 corpus/ seeds/

-fork=N spawns N processes, each with its own corpus subset. Combine corpora periodically with -merge=1.

Reproducing a crash

./fuzz_target crash-<sha1>
# Sanitiser report prints to stderr; same as the original crash

Verify: confirm the replay prints the same sanitiser bug class and top stack frame as the original finding before minimising. If it does not reproduce, the artefact is stale against the current build (target or library rebuilt) - rebuild the target and re-run before proceeding.

Minimise the crash input:

./fuzz_target -minimize_crash=1 -runs=10000 crash-<sha1>
# Writes minimized-from-crash-<sha1> with the smallest reproducer

Dictionary file

For structured formats:

# fuzz.dict
"{"
"}"
"["
"]"
"true"
"false"
"null"
"\":\""

Invoke: ./fuzz_target -dict=fuzz.dict corpus/.

Parsing results

libFuzzer crash artefacts are saved as:

• crash-<sha1> - segfault / sanitiser-detected error
• leak-<sha1> - memory leak detected by LSan
• timeout-<sha1> - exceeded -timeout
• oom-<sha1> - RSS exceeded -rss_limit_mb

Each file's contents are the input bytes that triggered the crash. Pair with the sanitiser report (stderr) for stack + allocation site.

For automated parsing (e.g., file as a bug), feed the sanitiser-report output to bug-report-from-failure (in the qa-defect-management plugin):

./fuzz_target crash-<sha1> 2> sanitiser-report.txt
python scripts/file-bug-from-asan.py sanitiser-report.txt crash-<sha1>

CI integration

Short smoke fuzz (5 min) on every PR: build with -fsanitize=fuzzer,address,undefined, cache fuzz/corpus, run ./fuzz_target -max_total_time=300 fuzz/corpus fuzz/seeds, and upload crash-* / leak-* / timeout-* / oom-* artifacts. Full workflow: references/flags-and-ci.md.

For long-running campaigns, ossfuzz-integration is the canonical infrastructure.

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• In-process only. Doesn't fuzz inter-process boundaries; for network protocols see AFL++ in -Q (QEMU) mode or specialised tools.
• C / C++ + Rust + Swift only. Other languages have their own fuzzers (Atheris, Jazzer, Go native).
• Coverage instrumentation overhead. Hot inner loops slow significantly under -fsanitize=fuzzer.
• Crash uniqueness heuristic. libFuzzer dedup is sha1-based on the input; the same bug from two inputs creates two artefacts - pair with crash-stack-deduplication tooling.
• No coverage report by default. Use -coverage flag or external llvm-profdata + llvm-cov for line-level coverage.

References

• LLVM libFuzzer - llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html (opens in new window).
• FuzzedDataProvider.h - github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/compiler-rt/include/fuzzer/FuzzedDataProvider.h.
• Composes: sanitiser-integration-reference, corpus-management-reference.
• Sibling fuzzers: afl-plus-plus (out-of-process, multi-language), cargo-fuzz-rust (Rust wrapper around libFuzzer), atheris-python-fuzzing, jazzer-jvm-fuzzing, go-native-fuzzing, ossfuzz-integration.
• Dispatcher: fuzz-tool-selector.