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FuzzForge v0.7.0: Temporal Orchestration & Vertical Workers Architecture

ยท 6 min read

We're excited to announce FuzzForge v0.7.0, a major release featuring two significant improvements:

  1. Architectural Foundation: Complete migration from Prefect to Temporal orchestration with vertical workers - pre-built containers for instant deployment
  2. AI-Powered Secret Detection: New workflows achieving 84% recall on obfuscated secrets using LLM semantic analysis

This release transforms how security workflows are built, deployed, and scaled.

๐Ÿš€ Flagship Featuresโ€‹

Temporal Orchestration: Production-Ready Workflow Engineโ€‹

We've fully migrated from Prefect to Temporal, bringing enterprise-grade workflow orchestration to FuzzForge:

Why Temporal?

  • โœ… Reliability: Automatic retries, timeouts, and failure handling built-in
  • โœ… Observability: World-class UI for monitoring workflow execution, logs, and debugging
  • โœ… Scalability: Horizontal scaling across workers with intelligent load balancing
  • โœ… Developer Experience: Type-safe workflows, versioning, and zero downtime deployments

What This Means for You:

# Start FuzzForge with Temporal
docker compose up -d

# Monitor workflows in real-time
open http://localhost:8080 # Temporal UI

# Submit workflows - everything just works
cd your_project/
ff workflow run security_assessment .

The Temporal UI gives you complete visibility into workflow execution:

  • Live activity timelines
  • Detailed logs for every step
  • Retry history and failure analysis
  • Performance metrics and bottleneck detection

Vertical Workers: Pre-Built Security Toolchainsโ€‹

FuzzForge now uses vertical workers - long-lived containers pre-built with security toolchains for different languages and platforms:

WorkerToolchainStatusAvailable Workflows
pythonGitleaks, TruffleHog, Atherisโœ… ProductionSecret detection, security assessment
rustcargo-fuzzโš ๏ธ Early DevRust fuzzing
ossfuzzOSS-Fuzz infrastructureโš ๏ธ Heavy DevContinuous fuzzing campaigns

Note: Additional workers (web, android, Go) are planned but not yet available.

Key Benefits:

  1. Zero Build Time: Workflows start instantly - no container builds per workflow
  2. Instant Code Changes: Modify workflow code, restart worker, done
  3. Consistent Environment: Same toolchain versions across all runs
  4. Resource Efficiency: Share workers across multiple concurrent workflows

Example: Running Secret Detection

# Worker is already running with Gitleaks, TruffleHog installed
ff workflow run gitleaks_detection .

# Behind the scenes:
# 1. CLI uploads project to MinIO
# 2. Temporal schedules on python-worker
# 3. Worker downloads from MinIO
# 4. Gitleaks runs (already installed!)
# 5. Results returned as SARIF

MinIO Storage: Unified File Handlingโ€‹

We've replaced volume mounts with MinIO (S3-compatible object storage):

Old Way (Volume Mounts):

# Had to mount directories, manage paths, cleanup manually
volumes:
- ./my_project:/target

New Way (MinIO):

# CLI handles everything automatically
ff workflow run security_assessment .
# โœ“ Creates tarball
# โœ“ Uploads to MinIO
# โœ“ Passes target_id to workflow
# โœ“ Worker downloads and extracts
# โœ“ Cleanup handled automatically

Benefits:

  • โœ… No path conflicts or permissions issues
  • โœ… Works seamlessly with remote Temporal clusters
  • โœ… Automatic cleanup and caching
  • โœ… Supports large targets (GB+)

๐Ÿ” AI-Powered Secret Detection: Also in v0.7.0โ€‹

Alongside the architectural improvements, we're releasing a comprehensive secret detection system with three workflows:

Benchmark Resultsโ€‹

We tested on a controlled dataset of 32 documented secrets (12 Easy, 10 Medium, 10 Hard):

ToolRecallSecrets FoundSpeedBest For
LLM (gpt-5-mini)84.4%41618sObfuscated & hidden secrets
LLM (gpt-4o-mini)56.2%30297sBalanced speed/accuracy
Gitleaks37.5%125sFast pattern-based scanning
TruffleHog0.0%15sEntropy analysis

๐Ÿ“Š Full benchmark methodology and results โ†’

Why LLM-Based Detection Winsโ€‹

Obfuscated Secrets (Medium Difficulty):

# Gitleaks: โŒ Missed (no pattern match)
# LLM: โœ… Found (semantic understanding)
aws_key = base64.b64decode("QUtJQUlPU0ZPRE5ON0VYQU1QTEU=").decode()

Well-Hidden Secrets (Hard Difficulty):

# Gitleaks: โŒ Missed (no pattern)
# LLM: โœ… Found (understands XOR + join)
secret = ''.join(chr(ord(c) ^ 0x42) for c in "\x0b\x15\x04\x1b...")

Standard Secrets (Easy Difficulty):

# Both find these:
AWS_ACCESS_KEY = "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"

Try It Yourselfโ€‹

# Start FuzzForge
docker compose up -d

# Run secret detection on your code
cd your_project/
ff workflow run gitleaks_detection . # Fast pattern-based
ff workflow run trufflehog_detection . # Entropy analysis
ff workflow run llm_secret_detection . # AI semantic analysis

# Get SARIF output
ff finding <run-id>

๐Ÿ“Š Real-World Impactโ€‹

Before v0.7.0 (Pattern-Only Detection):

  • Found: Standard API keys, simple patterns
  • Missed: Base64-encoded secrets, obfuscated credentials, split secrets

After v0.7.0 (LLM + Patterns):

  • 84% recall on comprehensive benchmark
  • Detects novel obfuscation techniques
  • Understands code context (not just regex)
  • Catches secrets in:
    • Base64/hex encoding
    • String concatenation
    • XOR/ROT13 obfuscation
    • Template strings
    • Binary literals

๐Ÿ”„ Migration Guideโ€‹

What Changedโ€‹

Docker Compose:

# Old (Prefect)
docker-compose up

# New (Temporal)
docker compose up -d

Workflow Submission:

# Old (volume mounts)
ff workflow run security_assessment --volume ./project

# New (automatic upload)
ff workflow run security_assessment .
# CLI handles upload automatically!

Worker Management:

# Old (per-workflow containers)
# Each workflow built its own container

# New (vertical workers)
docker compose up -d # All workers start
# Workflows share workers - much faster!

Configurationโ€‹

Set up AI workflows with API keys:

cp volumes/env/.env.template volumes/env/.env
# Edit .env and add your API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)

Required for:

  • llm_secret_detection workflow
  • AI agent features (ff ai agent)

Basic security workflows (gitleaks, trufflehog, security_assessment) work without this.

๐Ÿ—๏ธ Architecture Overviewโ€‹

โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚ User CLI โ”‚ Upload โ†’ MinIO
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
โ†“ Submit
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚ Temporal โ”‚ Schedule โ†’ Task Queue
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
โ†“ Execute
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚ Vertical โ”‚ Download from MinIO โ†’ Run Tools โ†’ Upload Results
โ”‚ Workers โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
rust, python, web, android, ossfuzz

Benefits:

  • ๐Ÿ”„ Automatic retries and timeouts (Temporal)
  • ๐Ÿ“ฆ No file path management (MinIO)
  • โšก Zero container build time (Vertical Workers)
  • ๐Ÿ“ˆ Horizontal scaling ready (Temporal + Workers)

๐ŸŽฏ Workflow Stability Statusโ€‹

โœ… Stable & Production-Readyโ€‹

  • Secret Detection: gitleaks_detection, trufflehog_detection, llm_secret_detection
  • Security Assessment: security_assessment
  • Temporal orchestration with python worker
  • MinIO file storage

โš ๏ธ Early Development (Functional but not production-ready)โ€‹

  • Fuzzing workflows:
    • atheris_fuzzing - Python fuzzing with Atheris
    • cargo_fuzzing - Rust fuzzing with cargo-fuzz
  • OSS-Fuzz integration: ossfuzz_campaign (under heavy active development)

Important: Fuzzing workflows are functional for testing but not recommended for production use yet.

๐Ÿ“š Resourcesโ€‹

๐Ÿ™ Acknowledgmentsโ€‹

Special thanks to:

  • Temporal for the amazing workflow engine
  • Our community for feedback during the migration

๐Ÿš€ Get Startedโ€‹

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/fuzzinglabs/fuzzforge_ai.git
cd fuzzforge_ai
uv tool install --python python3.12 .

# Start FuzzForge with Temporal
docker compose up -d

# Run your first workflow
cd test_projects/vulnerable_app/
fuzzforge init
ff workflow run security_assessment .

# Check Temporal UI
open http://localhost:8080

FuzzForge v0.7.0 is a foundational release that sets the stage for scalable, production-ready security automation. Try it today and let us know what you think!

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