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Utah State University

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Selected work

Representative Papers

Beyond Source: An Empirical Study of Python Bytecode Security Risks

Aug 13, 2026

This study addresses a critical gap in Python software security research, which has predominantly focused on source code while overlooking the distinct risks posed by bytecode (e.g., .pyc files). We present the first large-scale empirical analysis of bytecode distribution and security across PyPI packages. Leveraging version-aware decompilation, bytecode fuzzing, anomaly clustering, and source–bytecode equivalence validation, we systematically assess threats to the CPython runtime. Among over one million PyPI artifacts, we identify 7,388 packages containing bytecode. Our analysis reveals 17 robustness flaws in decompilers and uncovers 1,009 unique crash-triggering inputs via fuzzing, 261 of which exhibit memory corruption characteristics. Notably, 91.7% of these violations breach security boundaries, and the majority cannot be reproduced from source code, demonstrating that bytecode can evade conventional detection mechanisms and expose deep interpreter vulnerabilities.

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Latest Papers

Beyond Source: An Empirical Study of Python Bytecode Security Risks

Aug 13, 2026

This study addresses a critical gap in Python software security research, which has predominantly focused on source code while overlooking the distinct risks posed by bytecode (e.g., .pyc files). We present the first large-scale empirical analysis of bytecode distribution and security across PyPI packages. Leveraging version-aware decompilation, bytecode fuzzing, anomaly clustering, and source–bytecode equivalence validation, we systematically assess threats to the CPython runtime. Among over one million PyPI artifacts, we identify 7,388 packages containing bytecode. Our analysis reveals 17 robustness flaws in decompilers and uncovers 1,009 unique crash-triggering inputs via fuzzing, 261 of which exhibit memory corruption characteristics. Notably, 91.7% of these violations breach security boundaries, and the majority cannot be reproduced from source code, demonstrating that bytecode can evade conventional detection mechanisms and expose deep interpreter vulnerabilities.

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