Position paper:GPT conjecture:understanding the trade‑offs between granularity,performance and timeliness in control‑flow integrity

Performance/security trade-off is widely noticed in CFI research,however,we observe that not every CFI scheme is subject to the trade-off.Motivated by the key observation,we ask three questions:➊does trade-off really exist in different CFI schemes?➋if trade-off do exist,how do previous works comply with it?➌how can it inspire future research?Although the three questions probably cannot be directly answered,they are inspiring.We find that a deeper understanding of the nature of the trade-off will help answer the three questions.Accordingly,we proposed the GPT conjecture to pinpoint the trade-off in designing CFI schemes,which says that at most two out of three properties(fine granularity,acceptable performance,and preventive protection)could be achieved.