Deepbits Secures DARPA INGOTS Contract to Advance Automated Exploit Generation for Android

August 2025 — Deepbits Technology, together with the University of California, Riverside (UCR), has secured a DARPA INGOTS contract, aimed at advancing automated exploit generation in mobile operating systems, with a special focus on Android.

Android inherits a substantial part of its codebase from Linux and other sources, such as Qualcomm and OEMs, all known for a history of vulnerabilities. While the Android framework is primarily written in Java, it remains affected by non-memory-error vulnerabilities, such as file access vulnerabilities, which can enable exploit chaining.

Deepbits and UCR’s project will leverage their combined expertise in automated exploit generation, scalable program analysis, and AI for security to transform the traditionally manual, labor-intensive process of vulnerability evaluation and exploit development. The initiative aims to:

• Streamline vulnerability analysis and exploit development, making the process more systematic and scalable.
• Significantly reduce the manual effort needed to evaluate the exploitability of vulnerabilities.
• Accelerate the timeline from vulnerability discovery to exploit proof-of-concept.

Impact:

• Qualitative Improvements: The project will make vulnerability analysis and exploit generation more systematic, scalable, and sustainable.
• Quantitative Improvements: It will reduce the time and resources required to identify and exploit vulnerabilities by introducing scalable, automated solutions across the pipeline.

Ultimately, this DARPA-funded effort will enable rapid and responsible generation of exploits and exploit chains, supporting security researchers in keeping pace with the continuous stream of known and newly discovered vulnerabilities affecting the Android ecosystem.