In the era of the internet of things (IoT), software-enabled inter-connected devices are of paramount importance. The embedded systems are very frequently used in both security and privacy-sensitive applications. However, the underlying software (a.k.a. firmware) very often suffers from a wide range of security vulnerabilities, mainly due to their outdated systems or reusing existing vulnerable libraries; which is evident by the surprising rise in the number of attacks against embedded systems. Therefore, to protect those embedded systems, detecting the presence of vulnerabilities in the large pool of embedded devices and their firmware plays a vital role. To this end, there exist several approaches to identify and trigger potential vulnerabilities within deployed embedded systems firmware. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art proposals, which detect vulnerabilities in embedded systems and firmware images by employing various analysis techniques, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, symbolic execution, and hybrid approaches. Furthermore, we perform both quantitative and qualitative comparisons among the surveyed approaches. Moreover, we devise taxonomies based on the applications of those approaches, the features used in the literature, and the type of the analysis. Finally, we identify the unresolved challenges and discuss possible future directions in this field of research.

中文翻译：

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嵌入式设备和固件中的自动漏洞检测

在物联网 (IoT) 时代，支持软件的互联设备至关重要。嵌入式系统非常频繁地用于安全和隐私敏感的应用程序中。然而，底层软件（又名固件）经常遭受广泛的安全漏洞，主要是由于其过时的系统或重用现有的易受攻击的库；对嵌入式系统的攻击数量惊人地增加就证明了这一点。因此，为了保护这些嵌入式系统，检测大量嵌入式设备及其固件中是否存在漏洞至关重要。为此，存在多种方法来识别和触发部署的嵌入式系统固件中的潜在漏洞。在本次调查中，我们对最先进的提案进行了全面审查，这些提案通过采用各种分析技术（包括静态分析、动态分析、符号执行和混合方法）来检测嵌入式系统和固件映像中的漏洞。此外，我们对所调查的方法进行了定量和定性比较。此外，我们根据这些方法的应用、文献中使用的特征和分析类型设计分类法。最后，我们确定了尚未解决的挑战，并讨论了该研究领域可能的未来方向。此外，我们对所调查的方法进行了定量和定性比较。此外，我们根据这些方法的应用、文献中使用的特征和分析类型设计分类法。最后，我们确定了尚未解决的挑战，并讨论了该研究领域可能的未来方向。此外，我们对所调查的方法进行了定量和定性比较。此外，我们根据这些方法的应用、文献中使用的特征和分析类型设计分类法。最后，我们确定了尚未解决的挑战，并讨论了该研究领域可能的未来方向。