Polymorphism and consistency: Complex network based on execution trace of system calls in Linux kernels

Abstract

Linux operating system (LOS) represents one of the most complex human-made systems, and it acts as an important function between software and hardware. In recent years, a large number of related works treat Linux operating system as a complex network and explore some of the unique characteristics of the network. However, there is little research on the execution process of LOS in terms of networks. In this paper, the run-time behaviors of execution process are traced by system calls of LOS kernel, and the run-time behaviors networks (RTBNs) are constructed, in which the nodes of RTBN represent the functions, and the edges of RTBN represent the function call relations. On this basis, the statistical characteristics of the RTBNs are investigated, and some features of the RTBNs are revealed. The result shows that some of the network characteristics remain relatively stable without obvious changes, showing the characteristics of consistency. However, some of the network characteristics tend to be random and uncertain, showing the feature of polymorphism.