Time Travel Debugger

The Time Travel Debugger is a simulated security-focused debugging environment designed to demonstrate how untrusted code, plugins, and data flows can be traced, analyzed, and “rewound” during execution. It mimics real-world attack scenarios such as malicious plugins, data exfiltration, and tainted variables—making it ideal for learning about secure systems, sandboxing, and runtime inspection.

This project blends concepts from:

• Secure execution environments
• Taint tracking
• Plugin isolation
• Execution tracing
• Incident simulation

It’s not just a debugger—it’s a CyberSecurity Forensic Analyst for code execution.

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Features

• Simulated secure application runtime
• Plugin-based architecture (trusted vs untrusted plugins)
• Taint tracking for sensitive variables
• Execution trace logging
• Malicious behavior simulation (e.g., data exfiltration)
• “Time travel” concept to inspect and replay execution paths

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Project Structure

time_travel_debugger/
├── debugger/
│   ├── runner.py          # Entry point for the debugger runtime
│   ├── core.py            # Execution engine & trace manager
│   └── taint.py           # Taint tracking utilities
├── plugins/
│   ├── safe_plugin.py
│   └── virus.py           # Simulated malicious plugin
└── README.md

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Running the Debugger

From the project root:

python3 -m debugger.runner

You’ll be prompted to upload a plugin name:

🔐 Secure Application Started
Upload plugin name: virus

Example output:

Processing plugin: virus
⚠️ Untrusted plugin executed
[SIMULATION] Exfiltrating data: {'token': 'SECRET_API_KEY'}

🕒 Execution Trace (Condensed)
...

This demonstrates:

• Detection of untrusted code
• Tracking of sensitive data
• Logging of suspicious behavior
• A trace you can “rewind” and analyze

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Purpose

This project is meant to:

• Teach how security tools reason about code execution

• Show how tainted data propagates

• Simulate real-world plugin abuse

• Provide a foundation for building:

  • Sandboxes
  • Secure plugin systems
  • Runtime analyzers
  • Educational security tools

It’s perfect for:

• Students learning cybersecurity
• Developers exploring secure runtimes
• Hackathon demos
• Portfolio projects

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Future Ideas

• Step-by-step time rewind of execution
• Visual execution timeline
• Plugin permission system
• Real AST-level tracing
• Web-based UI for inspection

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Time Travel Debugger turns security debugging into a narrative experience—where every line of code leaves a footprint in time.