CodeQL U-Boot Challenge (C/C++)

Quickly learn CodeQL, an expressive language for code analysis, which helps you explore source code to find bugs and vulnerabilities. During this beginner-level course, you will learn to write queries in CodeQL and find critical security vulnerabilities that were identified in Das U-Boot, a popular open-source project.

What you'll learn

Upon completion of the course, you'll be able to:

• Understand the basic syntax of CodeQL queries
• Use the standard CodeQL libraries to write queries and explore code written in C/C++
• Use predicates and classes, the building blocks of CodeQL queries, to make your queries more expressive and reusable
• Use the CodeQL data flow and taint tracking libraries to write queries that find real security vulnerabilities

What you'll build

You will walk in the steps of our security researchers, and create:

• Several CodeQL queries that look for interesting patterns in C/C++ code.
• A CodeQL security query that finds 9 critical security vulnerabilities in the Das U-Boot codebase from 2019 (before it was patched!) and can be reused to audit other open-source projects of your choice.

Pre-requisites

• Some knowledge of the C language and standard library.
• A basic knowledge of secure coding practices is useful to understand the context of this course, and all the consequences of the bugs we'll find, but is not mandatory to learn CodeQL.
• This is a beginner course. No prior knowledge of CodeQL is required.

Audiences

• Security researchers
• Developers