1

A system comprising:

a browser that is capable of visiting network locations as represented by uniform resource locators (URLs); and

a browser-based vulnerability exploit detector that directs the browser to visit a given URL by making an information request to the given URL; the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector adapted to detect if the given URL accomplishes an exploit on the system after the browser makes the information request to the given URL.

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2

The system as recited in Claim 1, wherein the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector comprises a honey monkey module and a tracer module; and wherein the honey monkey module directs the browser to make the information request to the given URL, and the tracer module traces events that occur within the system after the information request is made.

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3

The system as recited in Claim 2, wherein the tracer module produces a trace file that includes at least a list of URLs to which the browser is redirected.

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4

The system as recited in Claim 2, wherein the tracer module produces a trace file that includes at least a list of writes that occur outside a browser sandbox.

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5

The system as recited in Claim 1, wherein the system further comprises:

at least one virtual machine; and

wherein the browser and at least a portion of the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector execute on the at least one virtual machine.

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6

The system as recited in Claim 1, wherein the system destroys the at least one virtual machine when an exploit against the at least one virtual machine is detected; and wherein the system re-instantiates a clean virtual machine to continue exploration of other URLs.

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7

The system as recited in Claim 1, wherein the system further comprises:

multiple browsers that have different levels of patching, including a lower patched browser version and a higher patched browser version.

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8

The system as recited in Claim 7, wherein the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector directs the lower patched browser version to visit the given URL and detects if the given URL accomplishes an exploit in conjunction with the lower patched browser version; and wherein the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector directs the higher patched browser version to visit the given URL if an exploit is detected as being accomplished in conjunction with the lower patched browser version.

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9

The system as recited in Claim 8, wherein the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector attempts to detect if the given URL accomplishes an exploit in conjunction with the higher patched browser version; and wherein the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector determines that the exploit assaults a vulnerability remedied by a patch for the higher patched browser version if the browser-based vulnerability exploit detector does not detect that the given URL accomplishes an exploit in conjunction with the higher patched browser version.

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10

One or more processor-accessible media comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a device to perform actions comprising:

visiting a uniform resource locator (URL) of a parent list of redirection URLs;

producing a child list of redirection URLs from the action of visiting;

recursively visiting child URLs of the child list of redirection URLs to discover redirection relationships of the URLs that are visited; and

creating a graph that includes the URLs that are visited and that indicates the discovered redirection relationships.

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