| --- |
| license: cc-by-4.0 |
| language: |
| - en |
| tags: |
| - security |
| - binary-analysis |
| - windows |
| - drivers |
| - ioctl |
| - reverse-engineering |
| - attack-surface |
| pretty_name: The IOCTL Census (Structural Tier) |
| size_categories: |
| - 10M<n<100M |
| configs: |
| - config_name: binaries |
| data_files: data/binaries.parquet |
| - config_name: ioctl_codes |
| data_files: data/ioctl_codes.parquet |
| - config_name: dispatchers |
| data_files: data/dispatchers.parquet |
| - config_name: handlers |
| data_files: data/handlers.parquet |
| - config_name: functions |
| data_files: data/functions.parquet |
| - config_name: call_edges |
| data_files: data/call_edges.parquet |
| - config_name: imports |
| data_files: data/imports.parquet |
| - config_name: exports |
| data_files: data/exports.parquet |
| - config_name: cross_build |
| data_files: data/v_cross_build.parquet |
| - config_name: driver_features |
| data_files: data/v_driver_features.parquet |
| --- |
| |
| # The IOCTL Census (Structural Tier) |
|
|
| A corpus-scale, multi-architecture map of the Windows driver I/O-control |
| (IOCTL) dispatch surface, recovered deterministically across x86 and x64 from |
| 27,087 signed drivers. This is the **structural tier** of the census described |
| in the companion paper: the recovered surface itself, everything derivable from |
| the already-public driver binary. It is a substrate for binary-analysis, |
| attack-surface, and vulnerability-research work, not a list of vulnerabilities. |
|
|
| ## What this is |
|
|
| For each driver the deterministic pass recovers, with no symbolic execution and |
| no kernel or device, the control-code dispatch surface and program structure: |
| the `IRP_MJ_DEVICE_CONTROL` dispatch routine, every decoded control code split |
| into device type, transfer method, required access, and function number, the |
| handler functions and their reachability from the dispatcher, the |
| inter-procedural call graph, imports/exports, and PE/signing provenance. One |
| architecture-neutral recovery covers both x86 and x64, including the 32-bit half |
| that x64-only symbolic scanners abort on. |
|
|
| | | | |
| |---|---| |
| | Signed drivers | 27,087 | |
| | Drivers with a recovered surface | 21,708 (80%) | |
| | Decoded control codes | 3,089,633 | |
| | Dispatch routines | 927,542 | |
| | Handler functions | 848,094 | |
| | Functions (x64 deep lane) | 8,184,655 | |
| | Call edges (x64 deep lane) | 15,950,899 | |
| | Cross-driver code cohorts | 23,602 | |
|
|
| Corpus: Microsoft Update Catalog (`ms-update-catalog`) plus the inbox driver |
| sets of three live Windows builds (`live-*`). All drivers are Authenticode-signed |
| binaries that are themselves publicly retrievable. |
|
|
| ## Tables |
|
|
| All files are zstd-compressed Parquet under `data/`, keyed by |
| `(sha256, function_va)` where applicable. |
|
|
| - `binaries` -- one row per driver: hashes, name, corpus/build, architecture, |
| driver type, device names and embedded security descriptor, the |
| permissive-descriptor flag, decoded-surface counts, PE version/signing |
| provenance. |
| - `ioctl_codes` -- every decoded control code: `device_type`, `method`, |
| `access`, `function_code`, linked to its handler. |
| - `dispatchers` -- recovered dispatch routines with the recovery backend. |
| - `handlers` -- handler functions, reachability, and IOCTL distance. |
| - `functions` / `call_edges` -- the per-function layer and inter-procedural call |
| graph (x64 deep lane). |
| - `imports` / `exports` -- the import/export feature vectors. |
| - `v_cross_build` -- the cross-driver view: a shared decoded |
| `(device_type, function_code)` grouped across builds, architectures, vendors. |
| - `v_driver_features` -- a one-row-per-driver feature summary. |
|
|
| See `MANIFEST.json` for exact row counts and column lists. |
|
|
| ## What is deliberately withheld |
|
|
| This release is **structural only**. To avoid publishing a targeting map of |
| candidate unprivileged-reachable kernel primitives on shipping drivers, the |
| following are **not** included: the buffered-input taint sinks, the |
| language-model risk verdicts, the structural bug-class lead set, the |
| symbolic-execution (ioctlance) results, and the authors' own findings linkage. |
| The structural tier localizes no exploitable primitive: it records that a device |
| is reachable and which control codes it decodes, both derivable from the public |
| binary, but not where an unchecked write lives. |
|
|
| ## Intended use and limits |
|
|
| For defensive and authorized vulnerability-research, binary-analysis, and |
| measurement work. The `user_reachable` flag is a static read of an embedded |
| device descriptor and is a prefilter, not a runtime fact. The x86 lane is |
| surface-only (dispatch and codes, validated against independent disassembly; no |
| per-function layer). NDIS miniport drivers contribute OID request codes, which |
| are control codes the dispatcher compares against but arrive via the NDIS path, |
| not `DeviceIoControl`; filter on driver model if you want IOCTL specifically. |
|
|
| ## Provenance and reproducibility |
|
|
| The deterministic recovery runs on the open-source binary-analysis engine |
| [`glaurung`](https://github.com/mjbommar/glaurung), which supplies the lifting, |
| disassembly, and architecture-neutral intermediate representation. The method is |
| described in the companion paper, *The IOCTL Census: A Corpus-Scale, |
| Multi-Architecture Database of the Windows Driver Control-Code Surface*. |
|
|
| ## Citation |
|
|
| ```bibtex |
| @misc{ioctlcensus2026, |
| title = {The IOCTL Census: A Corpus-Scale, Multi-Architecture Database of the |
| Windows Driver Control-Code Surface}, |
| author = {Bommarito II, Michael J.}, |
| year = {2026}, |
| note = {Structural-tier dataset.} |
| } |
| ``` |
|
|
